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    • KEY DATES

    • Information Session for Students Interested in Joining a Service Trip
      • September 13, 4-5 p.m., Mallinckrodt Multipurpose Room
    • Service Trip Leader Nuts & Bolts
    • Learn everything you need to know to lead a safe and impactful service trip, including: planning logistics, budgeting, working with a host site, group dynamics, and more!
      • September 27, 5:30-7 p.m., DUC 233
      • January 22, 4-5:30 p.m., DUC 233
    • Service Trip Participant Pre-Departure Training
      • December 2, 2012
      • February 24, 2013

    Voices on Service

    "Community service isn’t about padding one’s resume, it isn’t about doing things so thatone might be proud and arrogant about it. But it is the dawning realization ofto the greater understanding our humanity, our fragility and a greaterappreciation of the great lives that so many of us lead and deem to be “normal”– when it pretty much is extraordinary in its own respect relative to manyother individuals around the world."
    Alwyn Loh '09
    ​"Community service puts me out of myself and lets me see a different part of myself, whichis important to me."
    ​Anna Spelman '10
    ​"Community service is helping people, but also gaining an understanding about each other and a sense of human compassion."
    ​Cara Clure '10
    ​"Community service never feels like a responsibility to me, or an obligation. I love it. Never do I feel better about how I have spent my time than at the end of a dayof service."
    ​Danielle Hayes '10
    ​"I have been so blessed in my life. I am so lucky, especially to be at WashU. It’s such an amazing place and, particularly while I’m here, I feel like I need to help other people."
    ​Deva Estin '10
    ​"Community service is important to me because I believe that people have a responsibility to provide support for one another."
    ​Gillian Rappaport '10
    ​"Community service is important to me for so many reasons! First and foremost, I take pride in knowing that I am helping to positively affect someone’s life. "
    Julie Hess '09
    "Community service is important to me because it helps people in my community and because it has pushed me to step outside of my comfort zone and take initiative."
    Laura Banks '09
    ​"I believe that a society cannot be truly successful with a mentality that every individual should only worry about themselves and in the end things will workout for the best. Community service is about building a stronger community whether on campus, in your neighborhood, city, state, or any other type of community." 
    ​Regis Murayi '10
    ​"Part of being a person is about helping others."
    ​Seth Caplan '10
    ​"Accumulating concepts and ideas will make you an intelligent person, but to be a great person you must utilize that intelligence to have a beneficial impact on our society."
    ​Achal Upadhyaya '12
    ​"At this crazy time of change, when I’m supposed to be setting the foundation for my future, I am often nagged by small doubts: “Is that the best choice? Will I be able to ‘use’ this later?” I never have this feeling when it comes to service, because every moment is so meaningful and immediately worthwhile."
    ​Alaina Smith '14
    ​"There are so many people who have to get by with all types of nothing, whether it’s no food, no affection, no education, or no respect. To alleviate any degree of any burden – to make something better – is, for me, the pinnacle of accomplishment and hope."
    ​Alania Smith '14
    ​"Community service is the sharing of stories between equals."
    ​Alania Smith '14
    ​"Community service should not be done just to announce the completion. It should be done without looking for a reward or praise. It should not be looked at as doing something for someone, but assisting them in making life better and fulfilling."
    ​Alyssa Bobst '06
    ​"The connection and relationship with the community that develops from community service adds an invaluable layer to education."
    ​Amanda Troillet '11
    ​"Service is about taking responsibility for what is wrong in the community, and more so, the world and doing something about it."
    ​​Amee Azad '15
    ​"It benefits you just as much as the people you serve. There is no better feeling than knowing you've made a positive impact on another person's life. It is my responsibility, due to all of the privileges I have been given, to help those that have less."
    ​Ameet Thacker '06
    "Through community service, I learn what it means to be a part of something bigger than myself."
    Amy Cole '13
    ​"Through reflecting on my service experiences, I gained intense awareness of myself, the privilege I experience, and the profound injustice lurking in our world."
    ​Amy Finnegan '00
    ​"When you learn about different people, you can respect each other more and you cannot be fearful. You think they are just so different and their lives are so different from ours. And that’s not true."
    ​Amy Finnegan '00
    ​"Community service is a crucial part of the college experience, as it’s important knowledge that can't be learned from inside the classroom."
    ​Ashley Williams & Tiffany Chung '09
    ​"Asking why I incorporate community service into my teaching is a little like asking why I incorporate breathing into living."
    ​Bob Hansman, Associate Professor WU
    ​"You really can be anyone and do service."
    ​Caitlin Chicoine '11
    ​"There's always a way in day-to-day life to incorporate service."
    ​Caitlin Chicoine '11
    "Community service is one way of putting your mark on the world and experiencing diversity to enhance your mind and spirit."
    Caitlin Lutsch '12
    ​"I do community service simply because I want to help others when they are struggling."
    ​Caroline Landry '06
    ​"Community service gives me a valuable opportunity to walk into a different community that is less familiar to me but just as colorful and most importantly, in need."
    ​Cedric Xia '13
    ​"I feel the greatest sense of belonging in an environment where I feel useful."
    ​Celia Rozanski '15
    ​"I believe community service is one of the most important aspects of my Wash U experience. Without a community service outlet, I would not feel fulfilled because it allows me top ut the lives and needs of others in front of my own for a little time each week."
    ​Chris Halline '14
    ​"My hope is that one day, I can demonstrate all of these thoughts on community service in who I am, what I do, and how I treat other people."
    ​Chris Halline '14
    ​"In classes, in the media, and in our own life experiences students learn about and witness situations in our local and global communities that simply seem wrong. Giving whatever time and skills we can offer to make these wrongs right is our responsibility as witnesses to these situations. No mater how small the contribution, it provides a source of fulfillment and empowerment to us as individuals."
    ​Christina Durchholz '08
    ​"When you're a pre-med, there's a lot of work, so you have to take a break. And I've made community service my break. That way I get away from the school and the WU bubble. And it's just refreshing and it reenergizes me."
    ​Cindy Zhang '06
    ​"Get involved! Just give community service a chance. You might stumble onto something you're really passionate about. And that's worth everything. Just give it a chance."
    ​Cindy Zhang '06
    "I have discovered my greatest strengths in serving others. I truly believe in investing yourself in the community that you live in through community service."
    Christina Garmendia '08
    ​"Community service has taught me to be myself. When you are helping people or making a difference, there is no time to be self-conscious. Community service has alsotaught me that anything is possible."
    ​David Shepard '08
    ​"Community service should be thought of as a two-way street. A better term might be “community opportunity,” because this term accurately reflects the notion that community service provides opportunities for all participants, whether the beneficiary of the service, the provider of the service, or some third party, and thus it provides opportunities for the community as a whole."
    ​David Shepard '08
    ​"Community service is an essential way for students to get involved in something larger than Wash U. It is the grass roots manner in which we can truly "make a difference" in the life of another person."
    ​David Weisshaar '10
    ​"Every person in this world is a human being and deserves the same chances at happiness and opportunities, and because in today’s world this is not the case, I feel that it is important for me to do my part and improve the lives of as many people as I can."
    ​Declan Gruber '15
    ​"Simply the fact that I have been given things that others have not is enough reason for me to give back to the community and hopefully change the lives of a few people."
    ​Declan Gruber '15
    ​"Part of being a good citizen of a community is spending time in that community and aiding other members—lifting them up just as someone once did for you."
    Desiree Thomas '12
    ​"This is the community that we live in and it is up to us to maintain it and take care of it"
    ​Eboni Sharp '14
    ​"Community service has always been important to me because when one is in a position where they have the ability to reach out, it becomes essential and almost their duty to help."
    ​Eiftu Haile '15
    ​"A fulfilling and meaningful life is created through service to others. I believe that doing community service grounds my values and morals and helps me to make the most of my life."
    ​Elizabeth Kramer '08
    ​"Community service means giving back to the culture and people that surround you. It means supporting the immediate community on a local scale."
    ​Elizabeth Kramer '08
    ​"I've learned the importance of a single individual and that every bit counts towards the greater good. I've also learned the importance of organization and of keeping people involved in the organization."
    ​Elizabeth Kramer '08
    ​"It hink that community service is something that if you try it once, you’ll just be hooked. You learn a lot from the people that you serve and the people that you serve with. You learn how to accept help."
    ​Emily Dawson '02
    ​"It has given us a sense of the world outside of the college campus. Community service keeps one grounded when navigating the decisions that will affect one’s future. I enjoy stepping outside Wash U and collaborating with the community. I enjoy feeling the sense of accomplishment that I am affecting others positively."
    ​Emily Silber '09
    "Community service is important because it can put you in situations that you might not have been in before and enriches your life in this way. You may have questions going into a project and come out with more than you expected. Doing community service helps build bonds between those whom you are working with."
    Emily Silber '09
    ​"Being involved in community service has always been an important part of my life, even before I realized I was doing it."
    ​Emma Puls '14
    ​"What began during my WU community service pre-orientation program as an interest ingiving back to my community has blossomed into a life-long commitment to fighting for equal opportunity."
    ​Eric Scroggins '01
    ​"Community service is important to really get the most of your experiences in school. You really learn a lot about strength, compassion and vulnerability."
    ​Eric Scroggins '01
    ​"Community service has helped me to realize the contradictions that we live in. We say that everyone has the same opportunities and they really don’t. [Through service] I see the effects of that."
    ​Eric Scroggins '01
    ​"Community service is important because everyone should have the opportunity to make a difference in their environment in their own way."
    ​Erica Jones '08​
    "Community service is an investment in the future and well being of those around you."
    Ethan Lassiter '13
    ​"When it comes to community service, sometimes it can be rewarding simply to help raise money for an organization. However, it can be far more fulfilling to establish direct relationships with members of the community that one wishes to become involved with. Direct experiences throughout my college career afected me profoundly as I learned from individuals in St. Louis coming from all walks of life. With direct contact with the community, one oftentimes feels that one receives far more than one gives. Once you do get directly involved with a community, be consistant. Don't give up after a semmester. Keep it up for at least a year or two. You wont reget it."
    ​Eugenia Legarda '05
    ​"I view community service primarily as an act of responsibility, and not merely an act of generosity."
    ​Eve Samborn '11
    "I've learned that service is more than helping others. It's about being able to immerse yourself in the culture of the service and the people. That way you geta better grasp of the community and how you're a part of it, and in doing so, take pride in what you do. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learned so far."
    Felix Lui '07
    ​"School comes first, but there are those times when I feel a need to stop the rotememorization of obsolete textbooks. I feel that to be actually living in St.Louis I have to be reaching out to people; we must learn to excel vertically in our studies and horizantally in our experiences to the degree that our potential allows."
    ​Felix Lui '07
    "I have found challenging my own perspectives and my comfort zone to be extremely rewarding and essential to personal growth, but more importantly, I have gained an appreciation for my own power to good and make change in the community around me."
    Frank Bergh '08
    ​"From service in St. Louis, I realized I needed to spend my life doing good."
    ​Glenn Davis '02
    ​"Community service is wherever there is a need, and whatever you think that you can do."
    ​Glenn Davis '02
    ​"Students come to Wash U not just to enjoy four years within the confines of campus; we come to be part of the greater St. Louis community. Service allows us to learn first-hand about people, culture, and the society around us. It allows us to apply all of the knowledge and skills that we learn in the classroom to real life; service helps us connect to our surroundings. For me, community services has been the most valuable part of my Wash U education. Communisty services has tought me about leadership, culture, and myself, and my experiences with services has shaped my future."
    ​Gref Perlstein '08
    "I think that community service is a crucial part of a well-rounded education. Participating in community service in college prepares students to be productive members of society. It allows students the opportunity to understand the importance of service to others as a fundamental aspect of being a member of any community."
    Hannah Rosenfeld '10
    ​"We may not be able to perfect the word in our lifetimes, but every effort we put forth counts."
    ​Heather Brown '11
    ​"Although community service has helped me to appreciate what I have, it has also taught me how happy people can be without things that I think of as necessities."
    ​Hillary Bridges '09
    "Any amount of volunteering makes an impact in ways that we can’t even imagine."
    Jake Albersheim-Carter '13
    ​"I like service-learning because it insists that students grapple with both the continuities and the discrepancies between theory and practice as they move back and forth between the world of the classroom and the world of service."
    ​Jami Ake, Lecturer, WU
    ​"Community service is an important part of who I am. It’s that little part of me that academics, friends, and even family can’t fill. It is the satisfaction of knowing that I am not just taking from the community, but rather growing with it."
    ​Jay Beerman '07
    "I am more patient because of community service. I appreciate what I have more because of community service. I also appreciate hard work."
    Jeanne Lewis '02
    ​"Community service serves as a reality check and an inspiration to continue bettering society"
    ​Jenna Kaufman '11
    ​"Service is important to me because I feel that I must do my best to make this world beautiful, be it through small or large actions."
    ​Jessica Friedman '07
    ​"It keeps them in touch with what's important in the real world. It makes you appreciate the opportunities that you have. They say to whom much is given, much is required, and as college students, we have already been given alot--and it is our responsibility to give back to the community."
    ​Jessica McLean '08
    ​"It is so easy to go to college and get stuck in the college bubble…Getting involved in St. Louis and in the St. Louis community helps to keep perspective."
    ​Jesse Long '03
    ​"Service is an educational experience, it is a social experience – it’s fun."
    ​Jesse Long '03
    ​"College is a time for students to open their minds to new ideas and interests; helping others through community service acts as a real world yardstick against which new knowledge can be measured." 
    ​Joanna Freudenheim '08
    ​"Your environment limits your perspective. Community service expands it."
    ​Jorge Castillo '06
    ​"Community service is what got me to where I am today."
    ​Josh Lochner '14
    ​"Community service has been a relief this semester—a time to step off of the “Wash U bubble,” and be in the community that supports the school."
    ​Julia Kent '15
    ​"Community service provides perspective, I feel like I am doing something productive with what I am learning, doing hands-on work, getting to know people in the community, and forces me to reevaluate those trivial things that seemed so important to me before."
    ​Julia Kent '15
    ​"I was luckily born into an advantageous situation. Therefore, giving back to the community is a way to help others to experience some of the opportunities I have experienced."
    ​Julie Meyer '09
    ​"You learn a lot in your classes, but you can’t learn about human relationships and about life from a book."
    ​Julie Venci '00
    ​"I think that service means compassion and love and reaching out to people that don’t have as much as yourself."
    ​Julie Venci '00
    ​"I have learned the importance of human relationships and the importance of listening. Sometimes that’s all people want, is for someone to listen."
    ​Julie Venci '00
    ​"There’s so much going on in the world and to be consumed only with what you’re doing on a daily basis, I think would not only be boring, but unfulfilling."
    ​Julia DiLeo '04
    ​"The things I do and the people I meet through doing community service always challenge me to do more for my community."
    ​Kate Lamberta '11
    ​"Service is a way you live every day. Some people think that it is something that you do for four hours on Saturday and then you go home. But service is so much more than that."
    ​Kate Rowe '02
    ​"You have to be real about what’s going on in the world today. If you really are honest about what is going on in the world, I don't see how you cannot want to do something."
    ​Kate Rowe '02
    ​"I've just been drawn to community service, helping others just feeds my soul. Knowing that I'm helping someone else enriches my life, and I hope it enriches their life too."
    ​Katie Lombardi '07
    ​"Community service is an important aspect to remaining grounded and involved in the local community around us. This is especially important for college students who can often get caught up in the "bubble" of a college campus."
    ​Kelley Turek '10
    ​"Community service has kept me humble and grounded."
    ​Kelsey Times '14
    ​"Service, for me, is a way of showing gratitude for all those things that I do have, and at the same time trying to give others a better life."
    ​Kevin Sullivan '08
    ​"Community service is important to me because I feel that helping others is almost necessary to your own well-being. To take the opportunity to do something selfless for someone else is priceless."
    ​Kristina Harris '09
    ​"I have found myself through service."
    ​Laura Chicoine '14
    ​"Service has taught me courage, compassion, love, appreciation, teamwork, humility. I have seen hardship and pain and the power that a simple act of kindness holds. And I have been forever changed by the people I have met, worked with, and served."
    ​Laura Chicoine '14
    ​"Community service expands the studies of intelligent college students so that they may use the powers with which they have been blessed to empower others."
    ​Lauren Krebs '08
    ​"We are members of this university and this community. We have a responsibility to give back to the area that provides us with a home for the years that we are here. Community service allows us to connect to the neighborhood, make a difference, and have fun!"
    ​Lauren Kupersmith '11
    ​"Community service is about giving back – giving back to a community that has welcomed you."
    ​Linda Kim '01
    "There's so much to learn about a city, but there's also so much to learn about yourself. I really do think that you get as much out of a community service experience as the person that you are serving does."
    ​Loren Kline '07
    ​"A large part of 'community service' is giving part of yourself to other people and putting their larger needs in front of your smaller ones."
    ​Luz Silverio '07
    ​"Community service has made me a better person. I am more willing to see other sides of a story, more aware of the great diversity in the world, and more willing to do more for people outside of my immediate community of friends and family."​
    ​Luz Silverio '07
    ​"I do community service because I feel that the only reason that I'm not the recipient of community service is because I was lucky. Many kinds of suffering that occur in this world are completely reasonless and due to some random spectrum of inequality."
    ​Luz Silverio '07
    ​"Through community service I've met like-minded people who feel passionate about the same causes I do "
    ​Luz Silverio '07
    ​"Every community service moment is memorable."
    ​Luz Silverio '07
    ​"In order to serve well, you must listen, be patient, and not judge."
    ​Lydia Slocum ‘13​
    ​"Community service has been an outlet for me to make difference in peoples’ lives and to do justice to the privileges with which that I have been born."
    ​Madeleine Pannell '11
    ​"Community service is not something I do, it is a part of who I am."
    ​Mallorie Hulse '06
    ​"Community service is recognizing the disparities in America and doing your best to help resolve them."
    ​Mallorie Hulse '06
    ​"Community service is important to me because it has taught me the value of putting others before myself."
    ​Marissa Barnathan '12
    ​"Clearly we can support each other with our efforts and initiatives."
    ​Matt Zinter '07
    ​"Community service brings out the best in us, inspires hope in each other, and empowers us to believe in a better future."
    ​Matt Zinter '07
    ​"My service begins and ends in my home community; it starts with the people around me and reaches out to people across the world, but by the end of the day, it ends once again with my friends and neighbors. My service is about actions bothbig and small."
    ​Matt Zinter, 07​
    ​"With all the work that we all have in school and the many distractions that Wash U may give us, it is important to head out into the greater St. Louis community to try to understand how life is for many other people"
    ​Merrill Rudd '11
    ​"I see community services as the distribution of opportunity."
    ​Nicholas Curry '15
    ​"I have learned to be grateful for things I previously took for granted such as a soft bed, a full stomach, and a safe home."
    ​Nicholas Curry '15
    ​"I find that I enjoy living life most when I feel that I am living not just for myself but for other people as well."
    ​Nick Garzon '12
    ​"Why was I the lucky one who escaped poverty? Instead of letting my luck create guilt that drags me down, I have let it motivate me and give me the power to give back to a world that has smiled upon me"
    ​Nikita Mokhashi '15
    ​"Community service is very important to me because I feel that I have been placed in a very fortunate position in life; therefore, I must give back to the community in any way that I can."
    ​Oli Ononye '12
    "I feel like I am very blessed. I have not had to want for anything, material or in my family, and I feel obligated. I really believe that I am no better than someone who has a less stable living situation through no fault of their own."
    ​Phyliss Jackson, Event Services
    ​"It is about changing attitudes about doing community service. You are not just doing something for somebody else. It is not a charity case. It is a service. And if you open yourself up to the experience, it’s helping you just as much as it is helping them."
    ​Phyliss Jackson, Event Services
    ​"As I’ve wandered around neighborhoods, I’ve discovered a lot of disparities in St. Louis, culturally, economically, racially, etc. It makes me want to stay here longer. It helps me realize that St. Louis is the community I live in, not just WU."
    ​Pooja Agarwal '05
    ​"Community service is absolutely essential to one's college experience. College is not just about the experiences that shape you, but also the way you are able to shape others while you are here. To passively go through college is to waste an incredible opportunity."
    ​Prerna Raj '08
    ​"Education is meant to serve more than just yourself. An institution of higher learning is meant to provide students with the skills and the knowledge to go out into the world to help others. Education is about opening your eyes to how you can help others and community services does this."
    ​Pushkar Sharma '06
    ​"Getting out into the community changes your perspective in a positive way, but you may not realize that until afterward."
    ​Rob Collins '05
    ​"When asking people if they were interested in doing After School Art, and doing art with St. Louis City kids at an after school program, I found that many people were excited at just the prospect of it. And I was just asking, I didn't do anything. But I have realized that often, flks want to do community service very much, they just need an invitation to do it, sometimes. Hopefully, people will stop needing invitations."
    ​Rob Collins '05
    ​"Community service humbles you a little bit. It helps you understand your place in the grand scheme of things. A lot of people don’t have the things that Washington University students have."
    ​Rob Wild, Associate Director, Residential Life
    ​"To remain connected to the community of St Louis, which is now our community, it is important to give back."
    ​Samara Levine '13
    ​"I believe that in order to thoroughly understand your community, you have to be involved in it."
    ​Sara Lense '08
    ​"If there is something that I can do to help others in my community, I feel like it’s my job to do so"
    ​Sarah Harary '14​
    ​"I am a firm believer in the old cliché ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ and since I owe so much to the village that raised me, the least I can do is pass it on and offer my services to my ‘village."
    ​Sarah Tibesar '07
    ​"Community service provides students with the opportunity to give back to the community and experience the rich diversity that exists in the world around us."
    ​Sherill Wayland, Social Work Office
    ​"Community service is important to me because I have been given so many gifts and opportunities, and the least I can do is share them with those in need. Helping others is a good thing to do."
    ​Spencer Romo '15
    ​"Service can foster a sense of community for both volunteers and those we serve. It provides an opportunity for students to do their part in helping to solve problems in their communities."
    ​Stephanie Koh & Jodi Smith '09
    ​"Ultimately, community service can be very instructive for you and for others. It forces you to look at yourself in the mirror."
    ​​Steve Ehrlich, Associate Dean, University College
    ​"There is a certain kind of simplicity in life that you get from giving yourself to others."​
    ​Steve Ehrlich, Associate Dean, University College
    ​"You should try everything at least once because it might change your life, in the most unexpected ways."
    ​Suan Wei Yeo '00
    "My view of community service has really changed. I see it now as a symbol of building community. Whether it is as simple as picking up trash off of the street, or treating people well. Looking a homeless person in the eye."
    Suan Wei Yeo '00
    ​"The more that I do [community service], the more that I believe that it is very self motivating. It is both a humbling and a growing experience. It keeps me sane."
    ​Suan Wei Yeo '00
    ​"I believe that as a citizen of this St. Louis community, it is my duty to work together with other citizens to better the community as a whole."
    ​Sydney Jyner '15
    ​"I think it is important to recognize that people are just people, and that we need to share our knowledge and ideas with each other. Community service is just as much about changing yourself at the same time you’re affecting someone else's life."
    ​Tara Fridhandler '07
    ​"There are dozens of programs to choose from, tons of publicity for them and hundreds of ways to get involved with them. I never realized how much students did on this campus. I feel like I am hearing about new organizations all the time."
    ​Tara Fridhandler '07
    ​"Community service has definitely helped me look beyond my small community at school and recognize that there is a lot more to discover and learn. I think it has also given me a sense that my actions have a direct impact on others because doing community service is so tangible and real."
    ​Tara Fridhandler '07
    ​"Community service is a great way to get involved and meet people. There are so many programs just within WU that it's really easy to find a program that directly relates to your interests. It’s a great way to see the city, meet new people, and be active."
    ​Tara Fridhandler '07
    ​"I love service because it is such a humbling experience and every time I do it, the people I meet are so outstanding, I wonder who is really helping who."
    ​Taylor Fagan '15
    ​"Service, to me, isn’t just going out and painting a wall for an hour and saying that I helped. Instead, I think of it as more of a trait, characteristic, or lifestyle."
    ​Taylor Fagan '15
    ​"Community service improves communities both locally and globally, and it affects people involved on both ends – the receiving and the giving."
    ​Tenyana Drapkin '15
    ​"We can worry so much about getting the best grades, building the best resumes, but if we don’t make community service a priority, we’re not interesting people, and we’re not interested people."
    ​Teresa Sullivan '05
    ​"Each time you can do some kind of service for someone, you have the opportunity to learn new ideas, discover new perspectives, and ultimately grow as an individual."
    ​Tobi Lee '12
    ​"I’m in St. Louis, I want to BE in St. Louis!"
    ​Troy Makous '15
    ​"Community service means a lot to me: it means getting down and dirty; it means asking for input from the community you seek to serve; it means social, economic, and environmental justice; and it definitely means finishing whatever you have started."
    ​Vinay Kampalath '07
    ​"Through community service, I've learned to be humble. This is still a work in progress, but I am now realizing what I have, and more importantly, what I have been given."
    ​Vinay Kampalath '07
    ​"It's important for students to realize that outside of Wash U's borders, outside of exams and reports, there are real problems that need our leaders and our help."
    ​William Fischer '10

    "I feel the greatest sense of belonging in an environment where I feel useful."​

    Celia Rozanski '15
    Read all quotes
    Community Service : Our Programs : Service Trips

    Service TripsserviceTrips-hero.jpg

    Service trips allow students to immerse themselves in communities other than their own for a short period of time (usually for a weekend, fall, winter, spring or summer break) in order to complete community service projects and participate in experiential learning. Service trips afford students the opportunity to learn about social problems faced in other communities and to get involved in diverse environments enabling them to experience, discuss, and understand social issues in a significant way.

    The Community Service Office is committed to ensuring that all community service trips organized for Washington University in St. Louis students are safe, impactful and educational. In addition to individual advising and consultation, we offer training and consultation for service trip leaders, organize participant training, and collect emergency contact information and other essential forms from all students participating in a trip.

    If you are interested in leading a service trip or participating in one, please contact Shiloh Venable. Please also subscribe to our email newsletter to receive information about upcoming trips and other community service opportunities.

    Read more about the domestic & international service trips organized by and for students in recent years.

    2012-2013 Deadlines

    To ensure that all service trip participants are properly prepared for their volunteer experience, service trip leaders and participants are expected to participate in all pre-trip trainings and take responsibility for filing the appropriate paperwork with the Community Service Office. 

     
    Fall Break 9/14/2012 Service Trip Information Form Part A
      10/5/2012 Service Trip Information Form Part B &
    Participant Materials
     
    Winter Break 10/5/2012 Service Trip Information Form Part A
      12/7/2012 Service Trip Information Form Part B &
    Participant Materials
     
    Spring Break 1/25/2013 Service Trip Information Form Part A
      2/11/2013 Service Trip Information Form Part B &
    Participant Materials
     
    Summer Break 3/29/2013 Service Trip Information Form Part A
      4/26/2013 Service Trip Information Form Part B &
    Participant Materials
     

    Resources for Service Trip Leaders

    Service Trip Planning Guide

    Service Trips in Good Standing Requirements

       

    Forms for Service Trip Leaders

    Service Trip Information Form - Part A

    Service Trip Information Form - Part B 

    Forms for Service Trip Participants

    Note: All individuals participating in trips, including trip leaders, must complete participant forms.

    Service Trip Participant Information Form

    Community Service Trip Project Release

    Driving Authorization for WU Service Trips

    Funding Resources for Service Trips

    Civic Engagement Fund - Gephardt Institute for Public Service

    The Gephardt Institute’s Civic Engagement Fund provides support for civic engagement and community service projects throughout the year. Undergraduate, graduate and professional students are eligible to apply. Funding amounts are variable based on the budget, duration and scope of the project.

    Funding Grants - Women’s Society of Washington University

    The mission of the funding committee of the Women’s Society of Washington University is to support educational, cultural and community outreach efforts that enhance the experiences and quality of life for members of the Washington University community.

    Get in Touch

    Community Service Office
    Danforth University Center
    6475 Forsyth Blvd., Room 150
    St. Louis, MO 63105

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    By the Numbers

    68%
    of WUSTL Students  PARTICIPATE IN COMMUNITY SERVICE DURING COLLEGE. This is higher than the 59% average participation rate at a comparison group of 17 highly selective private research universities in the nation.
    23%
    of WUSTL Students  PARTICIPATE IN COMMUNITY SERVICE DURING ALL FOUR YEARS OF COLLEGE.  This is higher than the 19% average participation rate at a comparison group of 21 highly selective private research universities in the nation.
    51%
    of freshmen AT WUSTL ARE INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SERVICE. These participation rates are 6-12% higher than the rates at a comparison group of 17 highly selective private research universities in the nation.
    67%
    of sophomores AT WUSTL ARE INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SERVICE. These participation rates are 6-12% higher than the rates at a comparison group of 17 highly selective private research universities in the nation.
    76%
    of juniors AT WUSTL ARE INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SERVICE. These participation rates are 6-12% higher than the rates at a comparison group of 17 highly selective private research universities in the nation.
    80%
    of seniors AT WUSTL ARE INVOLVED IN COMMUNITY SERVICE.  These participation rates are 6-12% higher than the rates at a comparison group of 17 highly selective private research universities in the nation.

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