12D - THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
OFFTHEHILL
LENDING A HAND
MONDAY, AUGUST 18,2003
Opportunities abound for volunteer projects
Zach Straus/Kansan
Kaelyn Fox, Pittsburgh senior and Center for Community Outreach co-director, is expecting several hundred students to participate in her organization's volunteer events during Hawk Week. Students interested in giving their time to help others are encouraged to visit the CCO office on the fourth floor of the Kansas Union.
By Jennifer Wellington jwellington@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
In between the first week of classes, spending money on books and the endless social events, students can kick off the year by participating in a variety of volunteer opportunities.
Long-term and short-term volunteer projects abound both on campus and off.
Kaelyn Fox, Pittsburg senior and co-director of the Center for Community Outreach, said she expected several hundred students would participate in CCO's Hawk Week volunteer event.
CCO's Hawk Week event is a community service project on Saturday, August 23 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will allow volunteers the opportunity to work at The Pelatite Center, The Bailard Center or the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence.
Fox said one-time events like Hawk Week were popular among students because students wanted to do something, but didn't want the time commitment.
While short-term volunteering was popular, Fox said the center saw students who wanted to dedicate their time long-term as well.
The center offers 14 long- and short-term programs students can choose from. Fox said the center was always looking to add and update programs.
She said there were plenty of opportunities for volunteering during college.
"Students are not only provide
inga service to an agency and gaining experience, but they are learning about their community and real-life experiences," she said.
compiling their resumes and looking for jobs.
Mary Andrade-Carlson, director of University Career and Employment Services, said student philanthropy could be beneficial when student were
She said UCES saw students who volunteered for businesses within their careers as well as organizations that didn't have anything to do with their major. Either way, the center saw a lot of student's resumes with some
sort of volunteer experience on it, Andrade-Carlson said.
"Volunteering gives students an opportunity to test their skills in the real world and an opportunity to network," she said.
Andrade-Carlson said there were benefits with both short and long-term volunteering.
Short-term volunteering helps to round out resumes and gives a brief window of what a certain area looks like. However, long-term volunteering gives students an opportunity to test out their skills, she said.
Erika Zimmerman, program director for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Douglas County, agrees that volunteering was beneficial for students.
"It shows that they're willing to help out their community and give up time to help someone other than themselves," she said. "It also shows a sense of commitment."
Zimmerman said over half of their volunteers were University students.
"We see the majority of students participating in our school-based programs, but not as many in our communitybased program," she said.
Zimmerman, who volunteered with Big Brothers/Big Sisters when she was a student at the University, said whatever reason a student volunteered, they should think of it as a learning experience.
"They should open up to what they do and realize who they are helping and why," she said.
Edited by Kevin Wiggs
For volunteer opportunities around Lawrence and the University, try these organizations.
WHERETO VOLUNTEER
Alternative Breaks 864-4317
Ballard Community Center 842-0729
Big Brothers / Big Sisters of Douglas County 843-7359
Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence 841-6854
CASA-Court Appointed Special Advocates 832-5172
Center for Community Outreach 864-4073
Community Drop-In Center 832-8864
Douglas County AIDS Project 843-0040
Douglas County Senior Services
842-0543
First Step House 843-9262
Habitat for Humanity
832-0777
Hawks for Health 864-4073
Headquarters Counseling Center 841-2345
Jubilee Café 864-4073
Lawrence Humane Society
843-6835
Social Service League Store 843-5414
Students Tutoring for Literacy 864-4073
Van Go Mobile Arts 842-3797
Women's Transitional Care Services 843-3333
DONATION
Students aid Iraqi nurses with books
By Laura Sullivan Daily Pennsylvanian via U-WIRE University of Pennsylvania
PHILADELPHIA — Nursing students may be known for their caring manner and ability to reach out to patients in need, but the efforts of some University of Pennsylvania nursing students to aid others has gone beyond that all the way to the other side of the world.
The Nursing Graduate Student Organization is coordinating an effort to collect books for Iraqi nurses who saw their own materials destroyed in the war last spring.
Connie Smith, nursing masters student, first conceived of the project after reading an article that the nursing schools in Iraq had been ransacked.
"We got the okay from the dean, but we didn't have a clue at all how to go about finding what the school of nursing actually needed," Smith said.
At that point, Smith and other volunteers found themselves searching the State Department Web site for charitable organizations whose efforts they could emulate.
"This was absolutely a zero-budget operation," Smith said.
They called a Los Angeles-based international relief organization that "was very helpful in suggesting that books would be the most valued commodity right now," Kathleen Birch, GSO president and Nursing graduate student, wrote in an e-mail statement.