DeKALB – Northern Illinois University students are brightening the holidays for a group of adolescents who often go forgotten during the season of giving.

As part of an engaged-learning project in two group-communication classes taught by Department of Communication professor David Henningsen, the students collected about 400 gifts for teens in the foster care system. Young people ages 12 to 17 are often under-represented when people make toy donations for the holidays.

Henningsen created the assignment as a way for his students to study group communication. Fifty-six students in the two classes were split into 10 groups. Each group was asked to create a business plan for a toy drive and analyze how well its members worked together.