UW News

May 9, 2012

Spring Celebration of Service and Leadership spotlights undergrad efforts

News and Information

University of Washington undergraduates will showcase their civic engagement projects at the annual Spring Celebration of Service and Leadership, from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, May 11 on the second floor of Kane Hall.

Students will present their projects at 4 p.m. and a brief program of student stories will begin at 5 p.m. in 210 Kane.

UW undergraduates are involved in numerous civic engagement projects.

UW undergraduates are involved in numerous civic engagement projects.

“As the Carlson Center celebrates its 20th anniversary and the Mary Gates Endowment for Students celebrates its 15th anniversary, we want to take a moment to remember the stories of student and community transformation that all of our community-engaged programs are built on,” says Rachel Vaughn, the new director of the Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center.

Undergraduates are involved in numerous community issues ranging from early literacy to mentorship, agriculture to womens health awareness, youth identity and leadership to global climate change.

More than 50 projects that illustrate the breadth of undergraduate service and leadership will be presented in the Gallery of Student Projects including:

  • The Neah Bay Project: Telling Your Story
  • Establishing a Disability and Deaf Cultural Center
  • Outreach Coordination at People for Puget Sound
  • Manic Mouth Congress: Envisioning an Arts Activism Community
  • Lambda Phi Epsilon: Saving Lives through Bone Marrow Transplant

Last year more than 5,000 UW students participated in university-sponsored public service, including service learning, public service internships and volunteer work, devoting 523,020 hours to public service.

“Service-learning is a wonderful component to my social problems class,” says Alexes Harris, assistant professor of sociology. “Every quarter the student service-learners tell me what a great eye-opening experience they have had at their sites, that they would have never understood the issues in such depth had they not participated as a service-learner, and how they learned how much more complex society is from a sociological viewpoint. I couldnt ask for a better learning experience for my students.”

The Spring Celebration of Service and Leadership is co-hosted by the Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center, Jumpstart, the Pipeline Project, and the Mary Gates Endowment for Students, all programs housed within Undergraduate Academic Affairs Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity.