Question from the Dean: You Spoke

It’s been a long time since I graduated from the College (35 years to be exact) but my particular focus for community service has been as an environmental advocate. I sit on several boards — the Friends of the Rivers of Virginia, the Green Infrastructure Center, the Friends of the New River and the New River Watershed Roundtable. Each of these organizations in different ways seeks to protect and enhance our common natural heritage here in the Commonwealth and beyond. My activities in this area keep me busy, but it’s better than sitting home and watching TV!
Rick Roth (College ’72)

As an undergraduate, I volunteered at Madison House. Once a week, three of us would go to a local nursing home and do singalongs with the residents, or just sit and talk with them, or listen. It was 30 years ago now, but I still remember one woman in her late 80s who did not get much companionship who I spent the most time with. Her mind was lucid, and she told me stories of her life in Charlottesville. I enjoyed listening to her and looking back on it, I’d like to think it was as important to her to have a “friend” from the outside, as it was to me to feel I was somehow making life a little happier for someone.
George L. (Chip) Bailey III (History ’79)

When I was a grad student in A&S in 1960–61, three other students and I desegregated the cinema then across and down the street from the Rotunda. As Professor George Spicer said, that “fixed my compass.” I finished my studies with him on civil rights and the Constitution and have taught that topic and international human rights ever since (at William and Mary, Vassar, Maryland and Princeton). My book, Science in the Service of Human Rights (U. Penn Press), won the 2003 Best Human Rights Book Award in Political Science.
Richard Pierre Claude (Government ’64)
Human Rights in the World Community, third edition
http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14271.html

As a fourth-year English major who dabbled in environmental science, I remember being inspired by a speech that Ralph Nader gave on campus and then attempting to form a chapter of VA Public Interest Research Group (PIRG). We did a survey of basic food prices in several supermarkets in town and were prepared to use this project to launch the new organization when we ran out of funding and the survey failed to get off the ground.

From that humble beginning, the seed was planted. In 18 years of corporate communications work, I led a number of corporate community service projects including two Habitat for Humanity days, and was chair of my company United Way [campaign] for three years. My biggest volunteer commitment was to the New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, where I worked with many other nonprofits to preserve 20,000 acres of lakes and woodlands called Sterling Forest.
 
For the past six years, I have worked full-time for environmental groups in northern New Jersey and New York, and I have purchased about $5 million worth of permanently protected open space in the two states. I also do a fair amount of public policy work, and I often reflect back on my U.Va. environmental courses on natural succession, watershed management and other topics that have never left me. I should add that my many hiking and canoe trips in the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding mountains continue to inspire me and are some of my favorite memories of my four years in Charlottesville.
Bill O’Hearn (English ’81)

The most gratifying community service I participated in while at U.Va. was helping my fraternity, Sigma Chi, found Derby Days in 1975. We raised money through this event that we donated to the local ambulance squad. 

The sacrifice we had to make for this community service was considerable. We got chased around campus by sorority women for our derbies, marched in a parade with them, helped them compete in sporting events, and together we sponsored a campuswide dance.

Community service was never more enjoyable.
Sean Dwyer (Economics ’78)
 
For the past three years I have been responsible for our community’s participation in the “Great American Cleanup Day.” The event this year will be on April 19. Along with volunteers from our neighboring communities, we select an area for cleanup. This year it will be one of our major roads here in Palm Beach County. I have arranged support from our county sheriff, the City of West Palm Beach Fire/Rescue Department and several local merchants who provide free water as well as breakfast for everyone. In addition, I get all the equipment necessary free of charge as well as the county pick-up of filled trash bags. It’s a very worthwhile community effort and I am happy to be a part of it.
John E. Connelly III (English ’58)

While I was at U.Va., I think that my most gratifying community service was organizing the Charlottesville 10-Miler water stops when I was a first-year grad student. It was gratifying because it was a big event, required a lot of preparation, was a rush on race day and was successful. I think that my most valuable community service as a grad student at U.Va. were my roles for many years as reader, Eucharistic minister and mass coordinator at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church. This service was most valuable because of the importance of Mass, the need for the service and the paucity of volunteers for a few years.

Right after U.Va., I spent a year teaching in Lithuania. I don’t know if that constitutes community service or not. If it does, then most jobs probably constitute community service. It was gratifying to feel the appreciation of Lithuanians for my work. It was valuable to me because it provided greater opportunities for me and my family. For the Lithuanians, I hope that I set good examples of hard work, integrity, creativity and moderation.
Joseph D. Rudmin (MS Atomic Physics ’97)
 
I have so much gratitude for my experience at the University of Virginia. At U.Va., I enjoyed many activities in the U.Va. community and also the Charlottesville community. As a student-athlete (U.Va. Swimming and Diving ’93–’97), I constantly learned new lessons (in other words, I had a lot to learn!) about working with others and trying to achieve success. As a member of the sorority Zeta Tau Alpha, I learned that a lot of hard work goes on behind the scenes of charity events such as the Susan B. Komen Run for Life. One of my most memorable service projects was being a Big Sister. I was introduced to the program through Zeta Tau Alpha. The most lasting lesson was the selflessness that was required to truly help someone else. I don’t think this is something that I had really discovered. For example, on one occasion I offered what I thought to be the best thing for us to do; my little sister listened intently and then informed me that she wanted to go to the “biggest library at U.Va.” I remember thinking that I had all of these ideas about what I thought was best, but I just needed to listen to her so we could come up with an activity together.
 
This experience has helped me greatly in my job today. I am currently working on my Ph.D. in counseling psychology with a focus in sport and human performance psychology. I work at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Part of my mission is to teach mental skills training to better prepare soldiers going to combat, but the largest part of my mission is to work with injured soldiers that have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. As part of that mission, I teach life skills for those transitioning out of the Army. This is often a very difficult process for soldiers. Each soldier has different needs and much like listening to my little sister, I learn best from listening to them about what they need. My work is most helpful when it is a collaborative, empowering process. Luckily, I live in D.C., so I can go back to Charlottesville and remember all the great lessons, such as this one, that U.Va. has offered me and continues to offer others. WAHOOWA!
Holly Sisk (Economics ’97)

In college I was an active member of Theta Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a national service fraternity. For the past 16 years I have served as a volunteer Scout Leader. I am currently the Scoutmaster of a large Boy Scout troop (85 Scouts) in Chapel Hill, N.C. Helping boys develop into fine young men and teaching them about leadership, character
and service has been my most gratifying and valuable community service.
Ed Bedford (Government ’79)

I co-chaired the first transfer student committee at U.Va. in the mid-’70s. As a transfer student, I recognized how difficult it was to adjust to Charlottesville and U.Va. life. This committee acted as an outreach organization to incoming transfer students and published the first transfer student guides (becoming an annual publication). The book was so well received that the medical school republished the issue for all incoming med students.
 
Now I’m locally involved with Ruritans and I represent the largest township of the county as a volunteer commissioner of the Open Space and Trails Commission. Previously, I served as county PTA council president. I’m a member of many environmentally friendly organizations, including a local Land Conservancy, and Rails to Trails.
J. Gibson (BA Biology ’75, MED Secondary Education Science ’78)

Entered in summer of ’43 then served in World War II until summer of ’46. Most important experience was liberal arts education.
Paul Irwin (Economics ’49)

I remember an occurrence that may register more as community-spirited activism than as a “most valuable community service,” but one that should rank among the more entertaining.
 
At a time following my graduation from the University, I was co-owner of an establishment on the Corner and a member of the Corner Merchants Association. The city fathers were in the process of revitalizing downtown Charlottesville, and with what may be considered beneficial planning for the town had begun a project that included widening University Avenue from the intersection at Memorial Gymnasium past the Corner all the way to the downtown mall. The idea of course was to funnel more traffic to city merchants.
 
Now we on the Corner had no desire to retard economic growth of the town, but we did take issue with disturbing the traditional ambience that existed in the neighborhood of the Rotunda, Madison Hall, entranceways to University Grounds and the Corner. The plans as presented would have gone so far as to displace the stone wall that fronts the Rotunda. We also saw that failure to increase the width of the railroad bridge that crossed University Avenue (as left out of the project) would cause a bottleneck that would have defeated the purpose of the whole enterprise.
 
Our association representative who reported our apprehensions faced official rebuke at a public review of the plans. This response provoked a group of us with close ties to the University community and with less reverence for unreasonable authority to decide that public awareness and outcry need be stirred. We put together our own plan that involved members of the University Art Department, a few athletes with construction experience and a sympathetic reporter at The Daily Progress.
 
A front page article appeared in The Daily Progress within a few days of our complicity that included a large photograph of what appeared to be a Virginia Commonwealth Department of Transportation public information sign planted in front of the Rotunda facing University Avenue and reading:
 
“Future site of Jefferson Super Highway. Your highway taxes at work — whether you like it or not.”
 
The sign was in position at 4 a.m. (I recall my wife asking why I was dressed in black and leaving the house at 3 a.m.), and the reporter arrived at dawn to take the photograph before maintenance could remove it. No project proceeded to alter University Avenue, and the University enjoyed one of the most picturesque and comfortable mercantile and academic neighborhoods on any campus for years thereafter.
G. Robert Jones (College ’69, MA English ’80)

1) As a transfer to the College from the Architecture School, I continued to work for Tom Wyant, architect. As a result, I was the draftsman who drew the plans for the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad Building on Emmet Street, the Leeland Nursing Home overlooking Barracks Road Shopping Center and modifications to the Sigma Phi house among existing local buildings. Summers, I worked for R.E. Lee & Co. or ran the Farmington Hunt Club polo stables. This eventually led to many years spent on Lawrence Township (N.J.) zoning and planning boards. Athletically, it led to my taking several Lawrenceville School polo teams to the Interscholastic Polo Championships at Cornell or Virginia. This leads to the next:

2) The Virginia Polo Association is a “do-it-yourself” organization. This approach was applied to much of my teaching at Lawrenceville: give the students the guidance and then responsibility to run whatever activity I became involved in, raising the necessary funding, calling college coaches to schedule events, maintaining equipment, etc. Graduates went on to become captains at their colleges or to found or support teams where they were needed. Nota bene: The University of Virginia has slowly become an example of this same thinking. As the state has decreased its funding, the University has stepped up its own search for resources, to the extent that today U.Va. is becoming more private than public. I foresee public schools eventually learning the same trick through “Friends of the School” foundations. Finally:

3) Work as a jack-of-all-trades at Lawrenceville soon led to my becoming a board member at the Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart, a start-up K-through-8 day school, for all boys! It wasn’t until Lawrenceville went co-ed that I realized just how girls outshine boys in school! Proof was at son Rob’s graduation from U.Va. in 2006: at the Prize Day awards, only one prize went to a male, all the rest were to girls. If Mr. Casteen hadn’t spoken, most of what we heard would have been delivered by women! No wonder boys aren’t coming to our various colleges nationally! So, I’ve become a big supporter of very careful selection in making certain classes single sex!

The students today are so much more talented! Have fun! Continue to think outside the box!
Bruce McPherson (Art History ’61)

I have to admit that while in college I did little, if any, work in the community. I am glad that many junior and senior high schools now require students to perform some community service. It certainly gave my daughters some insight into how other people live, made them appreciate their own lives and made them more tolerant of others. 

As an adult, one of the most gratifying volunteer experiences I’ve had came through working with an organization called The Naomi Project, based in Northern Virginia. The Naomi Project provides one-on-one mentoring for at-risk mothers. What deems each mother “at risk” varies from case to case, but all need assistance on some level. They may be teenagers, undereducated, battling addiction, or immigrants trying to adapt to a new culture. The organization tries to match a client with her mentor while the client is still pregnant. The role of each mentor is to educate their clients on proper prenatal care, teach them parenting skills necessary to properly care for their children and counsel them on what they might do to improve their lives, and therefore the lives of their children.
 
I worked with a woman originally from Ethiopia who was trying to make a better life for herself here in the United States but ended up as a single mother struggling to make ends meet. The father of her child (they were never married) wanted her to have an abortion, but she refused and he left her and his unborn child on their own. She had no other family here in the United States, although eventually her brother moved to the area, and her mother was able to come for two months to help as well.
 
My primary role was to help my client with parenting skills, but I also needed to help her with other aspects of her life so that she could provide for herself and her son. While my client had been in nursing school in her native country, she did not complete her training and had no marketable skills. In addition, English was her second language, so her employment options were limited. While willing and able to work, finding affordable child care, housing and transportation was a monumental challenge. Therefore, together we learned how to navigate the available assistance programs.
 
Due in part to the high cost of child care, my client sent her son back to Ethiopia to be raised by her mother and other relatives when he was about two years old. Although a difficult decision for her, she could then focus on improving her own life. She started taking English classes in the hope that she could go back to school and one day get a better job. Her goal was to eventually improve her situation enough to be able to bring her son back to the United States. The policy of The Naomi Project is that volunteers work with their clients while they are actively parenting, so when my client sent her son to Ethopia, our mentoring relationship ended. We stayed in touch for about a year afterward, however, and it appeared that she was making steady progress toward her goals.
 
Although what I could do for my client was certainly limited given her circumstances, it was certainly gratifying to know that I had done what I could to improve the life of this woman and her child. I have not taken on another client since that mentoring relationship ended — I wanted to make sure I spent enough time with my own teenage girls that they would not need such assistance. However, my younger daughter will be off to college in the fall, and I hope to again volunteer to help others in need.
Shawn Ruffin Harrison (Psychology ’85)

Your question brings to mind a reluctant but nevertheless memorable community service project in the spring of 1973. This service project was the result of a serious infraction by our fraternity during Easter Weekend. We gathered on a beautiful spring morning to paint a small church located in the vicinity of Rugby Road. The work started with joking and pride that our excesses had singled us out for discipline. However, as we worked, we focused on the job at hand and we began to take an interest in the new appearance of the church. The work became important and the completed church a new source of pride.
John D. Allis, Jr. (Environmental Sciences ’75)

I was a typical fourth year in 1998 — full of wonder and excitement for what was to come, but just not quite sure what that was going to be. I wandered into Professor Gertrude Fraser’s office and started chatting with her about the future, and she mentioned a program called VISTA. I had never heard of the program before, but to this day, that was the most important conversation I ever had at U.Va.. The second I looked into the program, I knew it was perfect for me. I did not have a traditional path carved out for myself — I majored in anthropology and Latin American Studies and didn’t have immediate plans for grad school. Luckily, I found AmeriCorps VISTA. I served for one year, starting a community literacy program in a low-income school in Denver. That one year opened me up to other opportunities I never knew existed. VISTA was the perfect next step for me after U.Va., and I strongly encourage everyone who is searching for the “right fit” after graduation to look into it.
Susie Seawell (Anthropology ’98)

My most gratifying service experience after I graduated from U.Va. was teaching in San Mateo Ixtatán, a rural, Mayan community in the northwest highlands of Guatemala. During the calendar year of 2007, I taught math, physics and music to high-schoolers, and while it was certainly challenging at times, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. The relationships I formed, the perspective I gained on education and the lessons I learned about how to live a relaxed, simple, rural “third-world” life will stay with me forever.

Sometimes attending a place like U.Va. can be a fully absorbing — even selfish —experience, when one rarely interacts with the community at large. However, despite all the great experiences Virginia students have within the closed doors of the Academical Village, it was always clear to me that the students really do have an impact when it comes to community service: one look at the Peace Corps statistics or at the never-ending queue during Madison House sign-up day says it all. When I graduated, I felt my time had come to give back. That decision was one of the best I ever made.
Chat Hull (Physics ’06)

She would never write this herself, so I will. I pray it’s not an honor offense. Karin Walser (Foreign Affairs ’88) majored in foreign affairs, studied abroad and was fluent in French. Though she was our roommate, we never thought to ask how she planned to use her talents. She read books on tape for the blind and volunteered at the Bloomfield home for disabled children. But the singular thing about Karin was that she made you want to do something with your life.
 
A year after college, leaving work on Capitol Hill, she stopped one night at a gas station to find children begging for change. It made Karin so mad — small children out past 10! — that she followed them to meet their mothers, where dozens of homeless families slept in rooms floored with mattresses. She asked the moms if she could tutor their children after school. Soon, she was taking them to monuments and the zoo on weekends. Ultimately, she realized: you’ve got to teach the parents if you want to change the kids. I once walked in on her phoning a mother about her son’s dentist appointment. “Coca-Cola in the baby bottles,” she explained, hanging up the receiver. Years later, a reporter asked her why she does all this, with three children of her own at home. “I do it because somebody’s got to do it,” she said.
 
Hundreds of children and volunteers later, Karin runs her nonprofit full-time. Its name? Horton’s Kids. She says she chose it for the Dr. Seuss line: “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” But anyone who knows Karin knows she’s the stubborn elephant. She meant what she said and she said what she meant. “An elephant’s faithful, 100 percent!”
Holley Seale Camp (English ’88)

A most rewarding community experience has been five-and-one-half years of service on the board of Genesis, a transitional living program and emergency shelter for homeless newborns and their families in Atlanta. In addition to the rewards of helping address such a critical need in the Atlanta community, I’ve enjoyed the chance to get to know other parts of the Atlanta community. And Genesis has become known nationally for its work, so I am able to see “best practices” in services to homeless families. Genesis was started in the early 1990s by an interfaith coalition led by Rabbi Sugarman, then the senior rabbi of the temple, and my board service has given me an opportunity to get to know other congregations, both Jewish and Christian. Also, the Genesis staff does an excellent job with a very limited budget, and I’ve learned a great deal that has helped me in my own writing and editing work, which includes grant-writing for nonprofits. The Genesis board is a true working board, and I really enjoy the other members. One of the board members, Anne Park Hopkins, is a graduate of the McIntire School at the University, and I’ve loved working with and getting to know her.
 
My board service with Genesis has led in some interesting directions, including participation in an interfaith women’s program of the Atlanta Women’s Foundation, which is a funder of Genesis. I hope this information is helpful.
Margaret Perry Daniel (BA English Language and Literature ’75, MA English Language and Literature ’77, MEd ’78)
 
During my seven years at U.Va. (Engineering, College, and Law), I was a regular participant in the Wesley Foundation and Methodist Student Movement, while receiving a B.A. with honors in political science (1958) and a J.D. (1961). I followed that with a Rockefeller Fellowship at Yale Divinity School (1961–62), 14 years in private practice in New York and Washington, D.C., and 32 years (to date) as a federal administrative law judge. On July 10, 2007, my 70th birthday, Virginia Theological Seminary announced the creation of the Ronnie A. Yoder Scholarship to encourage students to write papers exploring whether love is an appropriate unifying philosophical center for all world religions. The idea is to break down creedal, doctrinal and symbolic barriers between religions, peoples, etc., by focusing on an acceptable universal philosophical center to frame and test all else. I would like to spread the idea to other schools and perhaps to the Rockefeller Foundation. While U.Va. is not directly involved in the scholarship, U.Va. provided the environment which enabled me to consider such subjects in the Wesley Foundation and MSM (through which I also found my wife of nearly 47 years); my academics at U.Va. enabled the Rockefeller year at Yale; and I would be very happy to have the U.Va. Religion Department take an interest in a similar study. A copy of the scholarship announcement is attached.
Ronnie A. Yoder (Government ’58, Law ’61)
Chief Administrative Law Judge
U.S. Department of Transportation

My first year at U.Va. introduced me to the joy of volunteer service. I started at the Cavalier Daily on the business staff. I kept that commitment throughout my years and finally served as the CD’s first woman business manager. Along the way, I learned how to form and use a budget responsibly. I learned how a nonprofit can provide for itself with partnerships with those of similar interests. By the time I graduated, my volunteer work for the CD had prepared me to serve on community boards in my chosen home town of Jacksonville, Fla. I’ve served on several over the last 30 years and can testify that it is more blessed to give than receive!
Mary Bland Love (Government ’74, Law ’78)

As a student at U.Va. in the early ’70s I became involved in Madison House and volunteered in a day care center for Spanish-speaking children of migrant workers in the Charlottesville area. It was one of the most meaningful experiences of my undergraduate experience and it taught me a great deal about the barriers faced by immigrant families as they struggle to adapt to American culture, and the resilience of children who must learn to adapt quickly to a new language, customs and communities. This experience influenced a desire and commitment to learn and serve in developing countries.

Beginning with a volunteer trip to Honduras in 1998 to build houses for people displaced by Hurricane Mitch, I have integrated a passion for international service with my academic career as assistant director of field instruction at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. For the past 10 years, I have conducted service learning and study abroad trips to Belize, Guyana, the Dominican Republic and Ghana, West Africa. The opportunities to promote cultural learning and cultural awareness through international service have been the most rewarding aspects of my career.
Randi White Buerlein (Sociology ’73)

I feel that my most meaningful contribution to U.Va. has and continues to be my dedication to community service both in and outside of the University. Firstly, one must understand that I had very little experience volunteering before college. It wasn’t until I came across Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, a 1,500-member organization of which I am now vice president and director of service, that I began this journey. When I first came across Phi Eta Sigma, I quickly realized how lifeless and inactive it had been. However, rather than turning my back, I saw an amazing opportunity to reinvigorate this society, focusing on fun, meaningful service projects. I didn’t start with any lofty plans, just a desire to organize a project here and there to try giving back to our community.

Everything started slowly. I ran for director of service and won, and first organized a bar night fundraiser at the main local bars, collecting donations to help find a cure for Crohn’s disease. Next I gathered a group of volunteers to help clean the local Ronald McDonald house in downtown Charlottesville (a place where families with emergency-care hospitalized members stay). With each project, I garnered new and more inspiring ideas for future projects.

Before I knew it, I was elected vice president and was finally able to spearhead all the service projects I had envisioned. Last semester we made and donated a hundred peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches to the Salvation Army, coordinated a team to play in a soccer tournament to raise money to teach HIV/AIDS prevention in Africa, and that same weekend went back to the Ronald McDonald House to cook lunch and dinner for the guests. We filled their tables with baked ziti, roasted carrots, mashed potatoes and endless pies and cookies, but the fun didn’t end there.

This semester we already took a huge group of volunteers to the animal shelter on Route 29, and our biggest project, “my baby” as I call it, is underway. I want us to paint a mural on the now-dilapidated corner wall on 14th Street and University Avenue in the heart of the Corner. It’s a grand endeavor requiring applying to the Neighborhood Association, the Board of Architectural Review and getting permission from the railroad that owns the property, but I have faith that we can reinvigorate what is now a gray intersection into a beacon of our community.

I never could have imagined coming this far. Just by following my instinct and a sincere desire to help others in need, what once was a lifeless organization has transformed into a vibrant society, in which members can give back to our community. Now, I can’t help but consider community service not as a burden but as a rewarding part of my life. Throughout this journey, I have learned what students are really capable of and how many people really do want to help if only given the chance. My experiences have taught me about a greater human bond that exists between us, a bond that connects the homeless to the rich and the uneducated orphan to the university student and obligates us all with a responsibility to help our fellow man.

As I explained above, my leadership in Phi Eta Sigma taught me a great deal about giving back to one’s own community. I have taken this lesson to heart and expanded my perspective beyond U.Va., finding additional ways to help the disabled and abused in Charlottesville and even farther away.

One of my proudest college activities, one that I will remember all my life, is volunteering with the Therapeutic Adventures Program (also known as Adaptive Ski). This program takes U.Va. student volunteers to Massanutten Ski Resort every weekend and allows them the unbelievable opportunity to help people with cerebral palsy, amputations, spinal chord injuries, etc. to ski. Although this feat may initially sound impossible, I have learned to work with a range of people, from children born with disabling conditions to amputated soldiers returning from the war in Iraq, helping them down the slope by tethering behind them as they ski in a seated ski or skiing with them side-by-side.

Starting the program was especially difficult for me because I had skied only once before in my life. Thrilled with the chance to improve my skiing, I joined and quickly discovered the people I would be working with — people who have inspired me unlike anyone else. As I had learned before, when you help others you are helped in return, and these unsung heroes have taught me invaluable lessons about the importance of perseverance and living with a zest for life.

Last semester, I also tutored downtown at the Charlottesville Community Attention Home. This house is for teenagers who come from difficult homes or have had encounters with the law. Every Wednesday evening I would make the 30-minute walk downtown and tutor for an hour in anything ranging from quizzing a girl for her spelling test the next day to helping someone write a report on The Crucible. Although I initially was nervous, I slowly recognized that these teenagers were bright, smart and just as capable as anyone else. Tutoring there helped me overcome the stereotypes I started with and helped me see the humanity in people from all kinds of backgrounds and walks of life.
John Pappas (Economics ’09)

While at the University, I don’t know that I could say I was especially involved in community service (though on writing the list it seems that I am being untruthfully modest, I really am not). I went to Alpha Phi Omega open events, did Madison House events, went to fraternity and sorority philanthropies, took part in neighborhood cleaning days, took part in the Boys and Girls club, tutored at a school and was a Girl Scout troop leader for Walker Elementary School.

I suppose I didn’t realize how much U.Va. encouraged me to get involved with community service or how unspoken the huge amount of community service that every U.Va. student does until very recently. I moved (back) to London and moved in with a friend from boarding school. She is currently applying for jobs and was very interested in a job whose main mantra revolved very much around community service and bettering the environment. There were only four questions in the application, each one asking about contributions to society, community and the world around us. My roommate had nothing, no material to fill those blank spaces with. It was then that I realized that each and every U.Va. student that I know could write pages, if not volumes, on how much they have done for the community and how much their actions at U.Va. have changed how they look at the world (if they weren’t so modest).
Serena Bolliger (Anthropology, Italian ’07)

I usually overlook the question of the month from A&S Online, but this month’s question struck a chord with me as I feel that the community service activities I engaged in while I was a student at U.Va. have had a profound impact on my life.

While I was a student, I was a member of the March of Dimes Collegiate Council, a student organization dedicated to educating our fellow students about the importance of prenatal health and the problems associated with birth defects. I also participated in the University Internship Program during my fourth year. Although I received college credit for my work, I thoroughly enjoyed working in the Charlottesville community and with the local teenagers enrolled in the program. I worked for Community Attention, a division of the Charlottesville Department of Social Services. I split my time between the agency’s Attention Home, a co-ed group home for teens, and the agency’s Family Group Homes program, a network of foster care homes. I served as a mentor for a few of the teens in the Family Group Homes Program and helped with supervision and programming for the Attention Home. These experiences helped me realize that I wanted to pursue a master’s degree in social work rather than an advanced degree in psychology, as I had originally planned. I felt that I needed to be out in the world working with people rather than doing research in a laboratory setting.

So I applied and was accepted at a handful of social-work schools. After careful deliberation, I decided to attend the Columbia University School of Social Work in New York, N.Y. I completed two full years at the school and received my degree in May 2007. The two client populations I was interested in working with during my tenure at Columbia were teenagers and children with disabilities. During my first year at Columbia, I had an internship with at teen center at a community service organization in the Bronx, N.Y. During my second year, I was an intern in the foster care department of a child welfare organization that serves children with special developmental or medical needs. After graduating, I got a job as a service coordinator for an Early Intervention program in Manhattan. The Early Intervention Program is a federal program for children ages newborn to three years old who have developmental disabilities. I serve as a case manager to help families secure the therapeutic and support services they need to help their children thrive and succeed. It is a very rewarding job and I feel very fortunate to have found it.

I feel that I have come full circle in that my job focuses on the needs of new parents and young children, just as the March of Dimes Collegiate Council did while I was in school. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to channel my desire to serve others into a career, as I know that there are others who would like to do so but who feel hindered by financial, familial or time constraints. I do not get paid a lot for the work that I do, but I am rewarded every day when I hear and see that the children I am working with are making progress and working towards their therapy goals.
Sarah Peters Lee, LMSW (Psychology ’05)

Of the public projects I have engaged in, two have been the most satisfying. One was acting as a mentor to children of homeless parents in a school for those children, and second is working with my wife to teach young married couples relationship skills in an eight-week class that meets weekly in our home.  In each of these, the major focus has been giving affirmation and hope.
Milton C. Smith (Philosophy ’59, Law ’65)