Salve Regina stays committed to community service

By: Sherwoode Grosvenor
Posted In: News

NEWPORT, R.I.–It was a cloudy afternoon at the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Middletown, as over a dozen young adults in bright orange shirts pulled weed-like plants from the ground with shovels. They weren’t criminals repaying a debt to society, but instead students taking part in a community service program of a local university.

When it comes to a helping hand, Salve Regina University comes out strong in terms of performance.

“We get things done in the community service program,” said Sarah Kelly, the community service coordinator at Salve Regina. “We (set) high standards here.”

Kelly smiled as she stated that 85 to 90 percent of Salve’s students complete their community service requirement within their first year. The coordinator went on to say that late April and May were the busiest times for her.

The only things Kelly would want to change about the program are to get another van to transport students around and to have bigger office, she stated with a slight laugh.

It is a hopeful sign when the whole student body participates in a community service program; many colleges are cutting back on their funding for this type of activity.

According to a report in the “Washington Monthly,” less than 12 percent of work study funds are going to community service. Many of the best liberal arts colleges and top universities are below average when it comes to this.

Over 150 schools fail to meet the minimum level of community service required at a university.

“I think that it (not doing community service) is a horrible idea,” said Jessica Cote, the assistant at Salve’s community service program, “Kids really need to go out into the real world before they get into the real world and do some things for other people.”

Cote proved the importance of the program to herself when she went ahead and completed over seven hundred hours of service to the community. She says that her favorite part of the program is helping those that need assistance.

The deeply involved Cote also commented that some students see the program as an obligation, creating mixed emotions among the student body. She claims that students need to find the balance between academics and the program.

For 10 years at this university, students have been required to complete at least ten hours of community service within their first year at the school. Though they can delay this until for later years, a diploma will not be handed out if a there is a failure to meet this obligation.

“If students find that’s something that they enjoy, or even if they find it a challenge, it’s going to be part of most of our lives, for the rest of our lives,” explained John Rok, the vice president of student life. “It’s the price we pay as human beings”

The vice president said that he did not wish for the program to become a negative experience for any of the students, and said that it is better for students to mature on their own in the program than to complete it all as fast as possible.

Rok believes that students are not starting their programs at the university but are continuing work that they have started before they came to the campus.

The one thing that Rok said that he would change about the program is that he would expand the marketing of the program on campus so that there would be more of a dialog among the students to encourage them to take part in the program. He wants the students and the agencies they volunteer to help to see a benefit in doing community service.

Rok works with the community service coordinators to get students to accomplish their service. He is very thankful to have them by his side and loves that they incorporate volunteer work into their lifestyle.

The school performs jobs at several places, including the Norman Bird Sanctuary, the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, and the Boys and Girls Club. Some opportunities are events such as the Special Olympics and the Aquidneck Crop Walk against hunger.

Besides local work, some students expand their experience beyond Newport and to places like New Orleans. During spring break, around twenty seven students and one coordinator helped the hurricane ravaged region.

The university has 40 to 80 different agencies that allow students to participate to fulfill their requirement. One of the biggest contributors to the school is the Feinstein Foundation.

The Feinstein Foundation was founded by Alan Shawn Feinstein who is nationally known for his community service program that connects many educational environments. All of the universities in Rhode Island are linked to the Feinstein foundation.