California State University, Chico

Chico, CA
15,919 Students

The university’s largest student organization, Community Action Volunteers in Education (CAVE), is a non-profit organization managed by 75 student leaders. During 2005-06, CAVE provided infrastructure support for community service and 50 service-learning courses at the university. The leaders recruited, screened, placed, orientated, supervised, and evaluated over 2,500 CAVE student participants. The CAVE participants served over 30,000 clients, provided over 80,000 hours of service, and made an estimated economic impact of $1.28 million in the region during the year.

The Community Legal Information Center (CLIC) was manned by more then 160 students who provided free legal information referrals, seminars, workshops, representation, and legal information to the community of Butte County through 12 projects.  During 2005-06, CLIC volunteers contributed free services to over 12,000 low-income and incarcerated individuals.

An annual student-led event called ‘Minds in Motion’ brought 4,000 elementary and secondary children to the campus to compete in age-appropriate engineering activities run by 200 college students. This event promoted college awareness and access.  During 2005-06, the university’s America Reads program used 25 Federal Work-Study students to tutor and mentor more than 300 elementary and secondary school students. 

Chaminade University of Honolulu

Honolulu, HI
2,836 Students

During 2005-06, some 47 percent of the University’s student body participated in community service, donating more than 50,000 hours of service. The freshman orientation program introduced new students to the University’s mission and ethic of service, and “platform projects” in introductory level courses created concrete links between course material and community service projects.  In the student-operated Palolo Pipeline program, each semester at least 60 students provided tutoring and mentoring for over 100 children each day of the week. During the summer, students and faculty ran a summer school that furthered math and reading skills through practical science applications in the environment. Meanwhile, the student-run Hogan Program for the homeless provided business training to more than 40 Palolo residents, assistance in resume writing and other assistance that resulted in jobs for homeless individuals.  The Center Program engaged some 50 students as mentors for over 100 disadvantaged children each semester. As mentors, they helped develop goal-setting skills, early college awareness, and service/ citizenship skills. The entire university’s women’s volleyball team joined this initiative, providing clinics that tied agility development with personal development, nutrition, and teamwork.       

Chaminade students also conducted personal budget planning sessions and free low-income tax-payer clinics, which helped low-income working families obtain the federal Earned Income Tax Credit and the state low income tax-payer credit. Students assisted 14 families in receiving over $15,000 in tax refunds and credits.

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

New York, NY
663 Students

The East Harlem Health Outreach Program (EHHOP) is a faculty and student operated medical clinic that provides high quality comprehensive primary health care services to the uninsured adult residents of East Harlem. The clinic performs laboratory testing, referrals, evaluated patients for insurance eligibility, and offered professional social work services. During 2005-06, the clinic operated year round, including Saturdays, with student volunteers providing clinic administration 7 days a week. The costs of all prescription medications are covered by the clinic throughout the year. During 2005-06, over 300 Mount Sinai medical and social work students volunteered with the clinic, serving over 300 patients during the year.

Niagara University

Niagara, NY
3,853 Students

During the 2005-06, 54.5 percent of Niagara’s students participated in community service projects and 61.90 percent of these students served 20 hours or more per semester. Niagara supported a very successful tutor/ mentor program in which 1,018 college students tutored over 5,000 elementary/ secondary students, putting in some 30,700 hours of service. In another project, 100 Niagara students provided tutoring, mentoring and health workshops to 60 children in grades 6 through 8 who were largely from Sudanese immigrant families. The workshops helped identify and address health problems such as obesity and malnutrition, while helping the children develop academic skills.  A reported 433 other students created and participated in 31 separate service activities.  In one of these, 75 accounting and management students provided tax counseling for the elderly, putting in some 750 hours of service and assisting 1,142 elderly taxpayers.  In other projects, students visited nursing homes, participated in community clean-ups, and worked to empower and help battered women. A truly innovative service-learning project took 16 students on spring break to Panama, where they harvested beans, worked in the fields and reconstructed a school.

Otterbein College

Westerville, OH
3,085 Students

During the academic year, 58 percent of Otterbein’s student body participated in community service activities, many of which were focused on improving the educational achievements and aspirations of Columbus area elementary and secondary school students.  A service-learning project used creative writing projects and successfully increased literacy levels of over 450 middle school students, 25 percent of whom live in distressed urban settings. In another program, a group of Otterbein AmeriCorps members created after school College Clubs to create a culture of college awareness and improve academic achievement at three of the most academically challenged schools in Columbus. In another, 36 undergraduates served as “Functional Literacy Buddies” to ESL students at local elementary schools, the majority of whom came from economically disadvantaged Somalian immigrant families. In another program, more than 50 Otterbein students contributed over 800 hours of service in workshops with teenage mothers on the importance of early literacy training of their children. 

Stetson University

DeLand, FL
3,665 Students

During 2005-06, 52 percent of Stetson’s student body participated in community service activities, and 59 percent of these students contributed 20 or hours per semester.  Each year the student-run Greenfeather fall week-end events recruit Stetson students for community service. Last year Greenfeather raised more than $24,000 for local charities, and some 1,000 students participated. As a result, some 120 volunteers were recruited for such activities as mentoring and tutoring disadvantaged students.  The CAUSE (Campaign for Adolescent & University Student Empowerment) youth outreach program, staffed by six Stetson students, provided leadership opportunities for 25 impoverished teens and served more than 100 disadvantaged local residents and children with tutoring, mentoring and other services.  Last year, Stetson launched the first year of its Bonner Leader and Scholars program under which 31 selected Bonner students devoted more than 5,000 hours to seventeen community service projects, many involving mentoring and tutoring in local public schools. 

Stonehill College

Easton, MA
2,443 Students

During 2005-06, 49 percent of Stonehill’s student body participated in community service activities; and 53 percent of them contributed 20 hours or more per semester.  Stonehill’s “Into the Streets” (ITS) program is the largest student organization on campus, with over 350 students taking part in volunteer activities each academic year. Two student co-directors and over 30 student leaders run ITS and help link the campus to the community. Contributing over 7,000 hours of service, students provided services such as tutoring and mentoring of children and teenagers, caring for seniors and developmentally disabled persons, and improving the environment. Every volunteer site gathers during the semester to reflect upon their service experiences and consider related social justice issues.  In one of the ITS projects this year, the College formed a partnership with a Boys & Girls club in Boston in which 30 youths from a low-income housing project were brought to the suburban campus each week for one-on-one tutoring and mentoring by 20 college students and the opportunity to envision their own educational futures.       

Tulane University

New Orleans, LA
11,307 Students

During the last academic year, 4,672 Tulane students, or 41 percent of the University’s student body, participated in a wide variety of general community service activities. The Community Action Council of Tulane University Students (CACTUS), a campus-wide student-run organization that addresses diverse community problems, placed 700 volunteers in 30 continually running weekly projects as well as one-time annual events.  Tulane leads a consortium of colleges and universities in a service-learning project designed to increase the impact of service-learning on student’s civic engagement and to build capacity at community agencies. During the past year, 517 Tulane students participated in service-learning projects in which they contributed 20 to 40 hours of service each semester.  Under the “For the Children” tutoring program, a partnership using service-learning and Federal Work-Study students, 140 volunteer tutors worked with some 400 underachieving students in New Orleans public schools.   

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, MI
39,993 Students

During 2005-06, some 45 percent of Michigan students participated in community service; and 46 percent of them contributed 20 hours or more per semester.   The University of Michigan Dance Marathon is a student-run nonprofit that raises funds for the rehabilitation of disabled children using an annual dance marathon and other creative activities throughout the year. This year, 700 students participated in the dance fundraiser and raised $315,716.  During their spring break, 15 undergraduates and professional school students contributed over 1,000 hours providing health care, health education and public health improvement services to a needy community in the Dominican Republic.  In another overseas project, 60 students and five physicians from the University traveled to Quito, Ecuador to provide free health care, dispense antibiotics, and educate community members on preventing illnesses.  Fifteen University students contributed some 700 hours of tutoring and mentoring as part of Intellectual Minds Making a Difference (IMMAD), an organization dedicated to raising the academic achievement and college aspirations of disadvantaged teens. In another project, University students worked closely with prison inmates to develop their artistic and writing skills.

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA
23,765 Students

Each week over 3,300 UVA students volunteer through Madison House, a student run nonprofit organization. This last year, 170 student Program Directors coordinated volunteers who contributed some 110,000 hours of service as tutors, construction workers, peer counselors, day care and patient service providers.  The University’s “A Day in the Life” tutoring and mentoring program matches UVA students with local at-risk youth who attend academic, cultural, athletic and social events together on a regular basis.  During the last year, 539 UVA students provided 9,522 hours of tutoring and mentoring services to 473 local youth.  Through the Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic, a partnership serving the healthcare needs of residents in southwestern Virginia, more than 130 student volunteers contributed over 5,700 hours and served approximately 3,000 uninsured patients, providing services such as medical screenings, medical care, consultations, mammography, pharmacy services and referrals to specialists.  Over the last two years, some 120 architecture and engineering students contributed 10,000 hours of service to design, build, and evaluate eight modular homes that were transported to one of Charlottesville’s low-income neighborhoods.  In addition, undergraduates placed through the University Internship Program contributed some 55,000 hours of service this past year, working with area agencies to meet a variety of community needs.