POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- Students at Marist College spent Friday night outside raising money and awareness for youth homelessness with a sleep-out.

A co-organizer and assistant professor of criminal justice, Frank Merenda, says a third of people who are homeless are youths.

Merenda says all donations from the sleep-out go to Hudson River Housing, an area shelter. 

He says participants replicate a night of homelessness, and like any professor, he wants it to be educational.

"Our students here are very much interested in community service," Merenda said. "A lot of them are going to be going into fields of social work and even within criminal justice and psychology, and so they are going to be confronted with these types of issues and so, you know, we want to be able to educate them and prepare them for their future."

Merenda says about 100 people participated in the event.