Elizabethtown College’s motto is “Educate for Service.” Etown demonstrates this motto through its many volunteer opportunities.
“Service is actually all around us on campus,” Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) Director Joel Janisewski said.
There are different types of opportunities offered. One type is events held on or near campus. Some examples of these are Into the Streets and Into the Campus. Both are service days in which students participate in projects on and off campus.
Another type is service trips. These trips are offered to all students and take place in many different areas.
Over fall break, some students went to New Jersey to help rebuild homes damaged by natural disasters.
The College also offers mentoring programs, such as Moving Forward Together and Building Bridges, in which Etown students connect with high school students in the area.
Career Services offers a program called PRIDE. This program has students working on projects that directly benefit the College.
For students with financial need, a community service work study is offered. These students complete service projects in return for financial support.
There are also opportunities through students’ academics. Community-based learning is an example of this. Some majors, such as communications, modern languages and social work, require service hours as part of their curricula.
“Every year students engage in over 90,000 hours of service altogether,” Janisewski said.
According to Janisewski, the most popular service opportunities are Into the Streets, MLK Day of Service, service trips and the Poverty Simulation.
“These are opportunities that have a long tradition at Etown, and they’re ones that students, faculty and staff know about and look forward to,” Janisewski said.
Students can find information about these opportunities on the CCCE’s webpage.
“At the CCCE, we are working on developing new ways of connecting students with service opportunities in our community,” Janisewski said.
There are also posters about upcoming events hanging in the Baugher Student Center (BSC). Along with public displays, students hear about opportunities through faculty, athletic teams and clubs.
Community service has several benefits. One is personal growth. Students can develop more compassion and see things from a different point of view.
According to Janisewski, people engage in service to address community issues. To solve these issues, multiple perspectives need to be looked at.
“Service and volunteering [have] the capacity to transform our perceptions,” Director of Career Services Jane Nini said.
Participating in service can also look good on a resume. Some skills that jobs look for are critical thinking and problem solving, oral/written communication skills and teamwork.
Volunteering brings out these skills by having students work with their communities to solve problems.
On the resume, Jane Nini suggested students effectively explain these skills and apply them to the program itself.
“For example, rather than providing a broad statement about fundraising, students should describe the goal of the project, the skills they used and the outcome,” Nini said.
“This enables employers to see how students made a difference in their volunteer work, not just that they participated in service or held a volunteer role.”
Not only will the service benefit students’ resumes, but it may help students in future employment. Leadership and teamwork are important in any job field. Volunteering allows you to experience a sense of team effort.
“Getting involved in a volunteer project can give you the freedom to lead a team in a way that employment may not,” Nini said.
These experiences also benefit the job search process. According to Nini, students can use them as interview topics on their resumes and graduate school applications.
For those interested in getting involved in service, Into the Streets is coming up Saturday Oct. 27.
