NEW FROM SERV: Community Service @ Lunch! Starting next Friday, SERV Lunches in the dining hall will now include a drop-in community service activity. We’ll be doing a new project each week – stop by, drop in, and help out for as long as you’d like. Our first project will be to make sock puppets for kids at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.
Service Opportunities: (Contact anyone on SERV if you’d be interested in learning more!)
Mentor Needed: Technovation Challenge for Needham 8th Grade Girls, Pollard Middle School
Mentor Needed: RoboNatick – Natick High School Robotics Club
Volunteer Teachers needed: Memorial Elementary After School Activities Program (ASAP) in Natick
Mentor Needed: Westwood High School Robotics team
Want to Start a Service Project? Welcome back to a new semester! This is the column where SERV usually puts all the ongoing service activities, however, we realized many of our current project leaders are taking semesters abroad, or working on senior capstone projects, etc. But don’t let that fool you! Service Projects can be done by anyone, any time. Here are the top seven reasons why you might want to start your own service project (number 2 will surprise you!)
7. Learn more about the community, city, and world around you. It’s no surprise that getting off Olin’s campus can be a challenge. Use your Service Project as a way to get outside the bubble and explore.
6. Practice your skills and Learn new things. Many service projects will make use of the skills. Whether it’s building bikes with Bikes Not Bombs, planting gardens with The Food Project, tutoring students in Needham, volunteer-teaching at an arts studio, or many others, you can use Service to augment your Olin education experience.
5. Have fun with your friends! Community service work isn’t always easy, but working on a team with people who support and care about you makes it much better. Plus, community service is a great excuse to hang out on a Saturday afternoon or a Wednesday evening.
4. Flexible options. Some organizations are looking for a multi-hour, semester-long commitment; other organizations can accept volunteers for one-off activities. SERV will support and fund Service Pursuits for projects you might do on your own, Chartered Projects for teams of students, and one-time events. Look at the SERV brochure on the Civic Engagement board outside the dining hall for reimbursement details.
3. Create meaningful and authentic connections with others. When doing community service, you tend to meet a lot of people. Some of those people might turn out to be great mentors, friends, or partners in your future endeavors.
2. SERV can help with transportation and logistics! SERV’s job is to make it as easy as possible for Oliners to do community service. That means we’re available to help with logistics, like coordinating meeting times or covering transportation costs. This semester we’re hoping to help Service Project leaders get Olin Van trained – stay tuned for updates.
1. Make life better. Each of us has the capacity to create an impact on the world around us. Even through the tiny actions of our day-to-day life, we can create a little bit of joy, relieve a little bit of suffering, or spark a little bit of curiosity. I would argue that together, these little legacies might equal all the Big Things we will do in our lives. Doing community service is a good way to keep that in perspective; and take it from a Jaded Senior™, keeping a good perspective is essential.
Interested? We hope you’ll consider reaching out to Grace, Michael, or Ashlee, who would be more than happy to help you set up your Service Project. Or, you can stop by the SERV table at lunch for fun activities and good conversation!
