More than 70 local nonprofits informed nearly 900 University students of local volunteer opportunities at the Service and Volunteer Fair held on campus Sept. 9.
The fair showcased a wide variety of opportunities for students.
The Catherine McAuley Center, The Jane Kopas Women’s Center, and Dress for Success told students about opportunities to help women. Geisinger Community Medical Center and Allied Services offered opportunities to students interested in medical fields. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and The Greater NEPA Chapter of American Fund for Suicide Prevention talked about their upcoming walks, and offered interested students the choice to either help walkers or to walk in teams.
Students learned about opportunities to work with people of all ages. At many agencies, such as Little Sisters of the Poor and the Gino Merli Veterans’ Center, volunteers work with the elderly. The Montessori Preschool and Kindergarten at Elm Park Church gives students an on campus opportunity to work with young children. EOTC and Big Brothers Big Sisters match volunteers with school-age children one-to-one, while Junior Achievement enlists volunteers to teach entrepreneurship to classes of schoolchildren.
There were also many agencies at the fair that invited student volunteers to work with animals, such as Adopt a Boxer and the Griffin Pond Animal Shelter, as well as the Indralocka Sanctuary which provides students a unique chance to work with farm animals rescued from abusive situations. Indralocka Sanctuary houses animals from pigs to peacocks to cows.
The Oak Leaf Therapeutic Horsemanship Center offers its volunteers a unique opportunity to work with animals and children. Volunteers walk alongside horses and assist people with disabilities, from ADHD to cerebral palsy, with their riding.
“It’s actually one of the only times that we level the playing field, because if I put you on a horse and a person with a disability on a horse, you’ll be starting from the same place,” said Loretta Dragon, the founder and executive director of Oak Leaf. Riding horses is also an effective form of physical therapy for recovering stroke victims. And anyone can volunteer, regardless of prior experience with horses.
Some agencies offered students internships in addition to regular volunteer hours. For example, at Lackawanna Pro Bono, students help to ensure that low-income residents have legal defense. Students gain both volunteer and work experience, and may even be able to count their volunteer hours for college credit.
The fair, organized by the University’s Center for Service and Social Justice provides a forum for University students and student clubs interested in service projects to meet with area nonprofit organizations offering volunteer opportunities.
Each year more than 2,800 University students perform well over 170,000 service hours, much of it through local organizations.
Elizabeth Polishan ’17, Clarks Summit, is an English, Philosophy and Finance triple major and participant in the Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program at The University of Scranton.
↧
Area nonprofit organizations connect with University students at volunteer fair
↧