While the topics covered in this site may from time to time be points of contention between student and year-round residents of college towns, there are innumerable instances of college students contributing to their communities. Attempting to list all the things college students contribute to college towns would be an impossible task -- so, to maintain a balanced presentation student service projects in college towns are listed below. You would not have to search long to find similar examples of student civic-mindedness in other college towns; if you work with others, please send the URL of the site/story.

The 10,000 Hours Show - National, Student-Led Volunteerism
The 10,000 Hours Show (10K) is a unique opportunity – a student-led effort to recruit and recognize young volunteers who serve local nonprofits…and it culminates each spring in a free concert just for volunteers. You volunteer, you rock.

Starting at The University of Iowa four years ago, we’ve had lot success -- over 3,500 volunteers volunteering more than 71,000 hours to local nonprofits...concerts with Ben Folds, Guster, and Cake. We've enjoyed the ride to Des Moines, Ames, and Madison. Now communities can start their own 10K using what we have learned and YOUR passion and new ideas!

The 10,000 Hours Show is looking for student leaders, campus advisers, and United Way staff to bring the 10K effort to your own campuses and communities. 10K is perfect for students and supporters passionate about service, excited about music, and looking for life-changing leadership experiences ...

2005
New Book from Campus Compact and The Princeton Review Features Colleges with a Conscience

Colleges with a Conscience
The Princeton Review partnered with Campus Compact, a national organization committed to the civic purposes of higher education, to develop and select colleges for COLLEGES WITH A CONSCIENCE. The book's editors also invited dozens of organizations with expertise in campus community service and student engagement to nominate colleges for inclusion. Criteria included: the college's admissions practices and scholarships rewarding community service; support for service-learning programs, student activism, and student voice in school governance; and level of social engagement of its student body. The book, in stores June 21, 2005, has two-page profiles of each college and advice for applicants.

Colleges and Universities Profiled in Colleges with a Conscience:

• Campus Link

Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (Bard College)

• Katrina, Five Months Later
  118 Bard students work in NOLA over break
  Bard Observer - 10 Feb 2006
  ...NEW ORLEANS, LA - While most people were heading home for the holidays last December, 118 Bard students traveled to New Orleans to join the ongoing relief and rebuilding efforts. For days they gutted houses and community centers, slept where and when they could, and witnessed first hand the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

  This trip was not the only action Bard students took in response to Hurricane Katrina. Promptly after the storm struck in late August, breaching the city’s levees and leaving at least 1,300 dead and thousands more homeless, Bard students organized clothing and fundraising drives for the victims. But some students felt that this effort was inadequate considering the volume of donations pouring into the city as opposed to how much physical labor still needed to be done. Asks trip organizer Stephen Tremaine, “How dare we sit around and beg for more and more money from people and feel like we’re being effective?”...

Bethlehem, PA (Lehigh University)

• Frats, sororities adopt families
  Brown and White - 23 Nov 2003
  ...“It’s a reality check for us,” he said. “Most people that go to Lehigh are financially well off and don’t realize that not everybody can afford all the luxuries they have. It is also emotionally rewarding to know that you personally made a difference.”...

Bryan/College Station, TX (Texas A&M)

• The Big Event

Durham, NC (Duke University)

• Duke-Durham Neighborhood Partnership Initiative

Minniapolis/St. Paul, MN

• University Neighborhood Network
• Students as Neighbors

Ithaca, NY (Cornell University)

• C-town cleaning machines

Oxford, OH (Miami University)

• Thanks to Miami Students for Make A Difference Day Volunteerism
  Oxford Press - 25 Nov 2005
  ...OXFORD, OH - All too often students who work very hard to make good things happen in Oxford are overlooked when it comes to special recognition. There have been several references to the Make A Difference Day activities reported in other letters to the editor and it has been more than amply explained how successful the day was. However, one student spearheaded the entire organized effort and has received very little personal recognition. We would like to publicly thank Anne Smart, a member of the Honors and Scholars Advisory Board, for her tireless dedication to this year’s project. She scheduled meetings, organized set-up and clean-up activities, wrote press releases and public relations promotions, recruited over 150 students to participate while getting them bus rides to the Mobile Home Park and assigning them into work teams, and coordinated her HSAB colleagues to supervise the work throughout the day. A very successful cookout fed over 200 people and Anne’s hand continued to guide that while managing all the other details.

  Students come and go to Oxford while receiving an education at Miami University. We have been most fortunate to have the hand of Anne Smart pulling together this year’s Make A Difference Day activities. Students don’t get any better than this one. Thank you ever so much, Anne.

  Bobbe Burke, Office of Student Activities and Organization Leadership
  Debra Stanley, Honors and Scholars Program.

• Move-out/Share Fest gives tons to community
  Miami University - 23 May 2005
  ...OXFORD, OH - Thanks to a new collaboration among Miami University, the city of Oxford and Butler and Hamilton counties, almost two tons of food, approximately eight tons of household goods, and about one fifth of a ton of school supplies were salvaged from items normally discarded by Miami students at the end of the academic year. The effort was called "Share Fest."

  Miami University’s departments of recycling, trucking, service learning, housing/dining/guest services and residence life joined with Oxford’s code enforcement office, Butler County Children’s Services, Talawanda School District, Oxford Family Resource Center, Shared Harvest and Goodwill Industries to divert about 10.5 tons of clothes, furniture, kitchen and cleaning supplies, notebooks, paper and non-perishable food from the landfill and give them to local families in need.

  The feat started with an agreement to accept items at curbside from off-campus students, place boxes in residence halls and arrange four Goodwill trailers on and off campus. Miami students were asked through posters, e-mail, university and city Web sites and local newspapers to identify usable goods before they left town and donate them to area families rather than trash them...

• Saving lives after school
  The Miami Student - 12 Nov 2003
  ...This is the reality for many Miami University students working as part-time emergency medical technicians for the Oxford Fire Department...
  
• The Miami Student Online:Adopt-A-School program continues tradition
  
• Adopt-A-Block takes out the trash

Outreach Scholarship: Learning Community

• Partners for Change

South Bend, IN (University of Notre Dame)

• A Push for the Northeast Neighborhood

Toledo, OH (University of Toledo)

• UT students make clean sweep of area
  Volunteers aid residents just to make a difference
  Toledo Blade - 26 Oct 2003
  ...the service day gave students a way to show that they do care about the neighboring communities.

  "It helps with the image of the university in the community," said Paul Chambers, a fourth-year marketing major. "We’re not all drunk partiers who randomly pee in people’s bushes."

Valparaiso, IN (Valparaiso University)

• Valparaiso University Community Outreach Partnership Center

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