Community contributions: Students invest more than 300,000 hours
Date: Apr 27, 2006
William and Mary students have more than doubled the amount of volunteer hours they provide the local community and now contribute 323,000 hours of community service per year, according to a recent survey.
The number of volunteer hours, which is up from the previous mark of 150,000 hours per year reported by students in 2002, were calculated as a result of a recent student survey conducted by the College’s Office of Student Volunteer Services and the Office of Public Affairs. Seventy-five percent of undergraduates and 50 percent of graduate students report that they have volunteered during their time at the College. Ninety percent of undergraduates report they will volunteer in the community they reside in after graduation, according to the survey.
“This survey more than reflects William and Mary’s long-standing commitment to volunteer service and the perspective students gain by working in and with this special Greater Williamsburg community,” said President Gene R. Nichol. “It also makes clear our students’ powerful contributions: Multiplying their annual community-service hours by the minimum wage results in a $1.6 million contribution in service to the community. They make possible more endeavors than can be counted and inspire quite a few of their elders along the way.”
The five-question survey was sent to undergraduate and graduate students on March 22, and the College received 3,290 responses, or a return rate of 49 percent, said Drew Stelljes, coordinator of student volunteer services, who compiled the results with Joshua Lovell, director of public outreach at the College.
William and Mary has a strong tradition of volunteering in the community, Stelljes said. The Office of Student Volunteer Services works regularly with 49 nonprofit and government agencies in the Greater Williamsburg area. Overall, the College has partnerships with 90 local nonprofit agencies and schools. Stelljes said that the vast majority of the reported volunteer hours—an estimated 300,000 a year—are contributed to the Greater Williamsburg community.
“Students have integrated their service experiences into their lives, often to the point of making personal or career choices,” Stelljes said. “These students no longer view service only as a function of their school experience. They strive to live a life integrated with their service work; their commitment is consistent, and they pledge a lifetime to the pursuit of social justice in society.”
The number of volunteer hours, which is up from the previous mark of 150,000 hours per year reported by students in 2002, were calculated as a result of a recent student survey conducted by the College’s Office of Student Volunteer Services and the Office of Public Affairs. Seventy-five percent of undergraduates and 50 percent of graduate students report that they have volunteered during their time at the College. Ninety percent of undergraduates report they will volunteer in the community they reside in after graduation, according to the survey.
“This survey more than reflects William and Mary’s long-standing commitment to volunteer service and the perspective students gain by working in and with this special Greater Williamsburg community,” said President Gene R. Nichol. “It also makes clear our students’ powerful contributions: Multiplying their annual community-service hours by the minimum wage results in a $1.6 million contribution in service to the community. They make possible more endeavors than can be counted and inspire quite a few of their elders along the way.”
The five-question survey was sent to undergraduate and graduate students on March 22, and the College received 3,290 responses, or a return rate of 49 percent, said Drew Stelljes, coordinator of student volunteer services, who compiled the results with Joshua Lovell, director of public outreach at the College.
William and Mary has a strong tradition of volunteering in the community, Stelljes said. The Office of Student Volunteer Services works regularly with 49 nonprofit and government agencies in the Greater Williamsburg area. Overall, the College has partnerships with 90 local nonprofit agencies and schools. Stelljes said that the vast majority of the reported volunteer hours—an estimated 300,000 a year—are contributed to the Greater Williamsburg community.
“Students have integrated their service experiences into their lives, often to the point of making personal or career choices,” Stelljes said. “These students no longer view service only as a function of their school experience. They strive to live a life integrated with their service work; their commitment is consistent, and they pledge a lifetime to the pursuit of social justice in society.”
Stelljes said students volunteer their time in a variety of ways. For example, 75 students volunteer each semester at Sentara Williamsburg Community Hospital; 87 students tutor clients of the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Program; more than 300 students volunteer each year with Housing Partnerships, Inc., a local agency that provides home-repair assistance to low-income families; 70 students volunteer as mentors with Big Brothers Big Sisters; and 200 students tutor at 14 local schools through College Partnership for Kids, a program in which students contribute approximately 400 hours of community service each week and 10,000 hours each academic year.
William and Mary students and Williamsburg have a long history of partnering in terms of youth programs for local children and their families, said Peter Walentisch, director of Williamsburg’s Human Services Department.
“This partnership has provided not only experimental opportunities for our college students but valuable role-modeling opportunities for city teens as well,” Walentisch said. “Our middle- and high-school youth have been introduced to college students from all over the country, if not the world, who have shared their values, experiences, goal-setting and their commitment not only to learning but also to giving back to the community.”
Some students, such as senior Catherine Schwenkler, develop their own community-service programs. Schwenkler founded a night resource program for students and parents at James River Elementary School. The program provides residents, many from the local Hispanic community, with community counseling, health care, tutoring and English-as-a-second-language classes for families living in the Grove area of James City County. In 2003, Schwenkler organized a student trip to Reynosa, Mexico, to help build housing for deserving families. The Reynosa Project is now a twice-annual campus service trip.
“I think that in whatever capacity, William and Mary students who are engaged in service create an unparalleled level of mutual trust and appreciation in the wider community,” Schwenkler said. “People in Williamsburg, as well as other communities both national and international where we serve, see that unlike the archetypal college students, we sincerely desire to think beyond ourselves and make a positive difference in the world. Not only are people’s needs met through service, but relationships also are built that bridge age, social class, gender, race and national origin. Community members and students alike experience that we are all people and are designed to learn from one another and appreciate one another.”
Senior Jason Starr helped to found William and Mary Medical Mission Corps, a group that recruits William and Mary undergraduates to assist in medical-mission trips to impoverished villages in Latin America. In 2005, the group served approximately 250 patients in two villages in the Dominican Republic. In 2006, the group traveled to the village of Villa Mella and treated 730 patients.
“For me, service has been the most pure form of leadership training to which I have ever been exposed,” Starr said. “No class, no seminar, no group discussion has prepared me to take an active role in the community—no matter how large or how small that community is—than interacting with its members in an honest attempt to help. The service community at William and Mary is so strong because it encapsulates the entire campus community.”
The students’ volunteer efforts also provide a critical service to the local community, said Nancy Fazzone, executive director of the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Program. The literacy program, she said, has benefited from thousands of hours of instruction by volunteer tutors from the College and community.
“This year the student-led Crossing Language Barriers Club recruited a large number of college tutors for the program,” said Fazzone, adding that without the students’ efforts, “many learners would not have received instruction.”
The survey on student volunteerism is part of a second phase of a review of William and Mary’s local and statewide economic impact. The first phase of that report, which was released in February, examined the College’s direct impact on the economy and job market of the Greater Williamsburg area, the Hampton Roads region and the Commonwealth of Virginia. The second phase will examine William and Mary’s indirect economic impact on the region.
“Our estimates of William and Mary’s direct economic impacts showed that the College adds over half a billion dollars in economic activity to the Commonwealth each year,” said Jim Golden, director of economic development and corporate affairs. “But that does not count the indirect impacts of our programs, including the academic programs, research, technology transfer, outreach, support for businesses, assistance to state and local economic development organizations or special projects. Student volunteers make up a significant part of our outreach efforts, and this survey demonstrates their growing participation in support of a wide spectrum of community activities.”
© 2009 The College of William & Mary