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URI Service Highlights

 

Feinstein Center Selects 28 New Civic Engagement Leaders for URI 101 - FEAP

The Feinstein Center for Service Learning would not be able to achieve the successes that it has without the assistance of student volunteers and leaders. Most instrumental to the management and facilitation of the Feinstein Enriching America Program (FEAP) is the Civic Engagement Leader (CEL) program. A CEL is an upper classman that has applied and been accepted to be part of the peer leadership in FEAP. CEL recruitment takes place every spring semester and spring 2011 saw the highest number of applications submitted for the 2011 CEL program. Only 28 CELs were selected for the Fall 2011 program.

 

URI SAVES & Habitat for Humanity Lead 3rd Annual Alternative Spring Break Trip!

This past spring, URI S.A.V.E.S ASB raised the bar when coordinating the 3rd annual ASB trip, by collaborating with the URI Habitat for Humanity student chapter and heading to New Orleans, Louisiana. The trip engaged 21 students and 2 staff members on the largest S.A.V.E.S trip to date.  The members completed an estimated combined total of 1,000 hours of service in the New Orleans community. They volunteered with various organizations related to rebuilding effort from Katrina, including St. Bernard’s Project, Habitat for Humanity, and the Green Project. All of these organizations have been working for years to restore this perseverant, vibrant, and historical city.

 

Nation’s Top Colleges for Community Service Receive Presidential Recognition

Washington, D.C. - As colleges across the country honor their graduates this commencement season, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) honored the nation's leading institutions of higher education for their support of volunteering, service-learning, and civic engagement. The University of Rhode Island was recognized for the fifth year in a row, being honored every year that the honor roll has existed. URI integrates their commitment to service through a variety of methods on campus including an introduction to civic engagement through the required freshman seminar URI 101, internships, service learning courses, community based learning, student organization philanthropy, alternative spring break trips, AmeriCorps terms of service, community based Federal Works Study and volunteer placements.

 

CNCS oversees the Honor Roll in collaboration with the U.S. Departments of Education and Housing and Urban Development, Campus Compact, and the American Council on Education. Honorees are chosen based on a series of selection factors, including the scope and innovation of service projects, the extent to which service-learning is embedded in the curriculum, the school's commitment to long-term campus-community partnerships, and measurable community outcomes as a result of the service. For a full list of recipients and descriptions of their service, visit www.NationalService.gov/HonorRoll.

 

2011 Robert L. Carothers Servant Leadership Award – Courtney O’Keefe

As a senior majoring in Human Development & Family Studies, an intern with both the Feinstein Center for Service Learning and Habitat for Humanity, and as founder of URI S.A.V.E.S., Courtney has fully committed herself to using every waking moment of each day at URI to serve others – a task that anyone who knows her would simply say is about who she is, and not what she has chosen to do at URI. Her achievements, however, are truly remarkable. With a GPA of 3.68, Courtney has personally recorded more than 1,300 hours of service with Jumpstart URI and AmeriCorps. Most impressive, however, is Courtney’s legacy of empowering others through service. Whether it be through inspiring others to serve on Alternative Spring Break trips, working side by side with homeless youth in NYC, creating an outlet for service for all students at URI (S.A.V.E.S), or by voicing her heartfelt opinions about the issues of poverty and literacy to state legislators, Courtney has not only answered the call to service, but has also been successful in helping others to grow. Courtney O’Keefe was awarded the 2011 Robert L. Carothers Servant Leadership Award and graduated in May 2011.

 

Evan White - URI senior’s experience shaped by community outreach efforts

If you were in a situation where you needed help, wouldn’t you want somebody to help you out? It is a question University of Rhode Island senior Evan White has asked himself since he was a child. For White, the opportunity to lend a helping hand to someone less fortunate is something he has acted on with regularity. Since transferring to URI from St. John’s University before his sophomore year, White has made community service a regular part of his life. When he arrived on campus, he was looking for student groups to join, and founded Students Actively Volunteering and Engaging in Service (URI SAVES) with another student.

 

Before starting his career, White will spend a year in service with AmeriCorps. In October, he will move to Sacramento and be part of a team of 10 people who will work throughout the Pacific Coast helping in a variety of ways, from volunteering as fire fighters to working in local schools as student mentors. “I have been blessed enough to get a college education and to be able to do what I want with my life,” White said. “Why not help others, if I can?” Read the full story HERE!

 

Scott Andrews named Newman Fellow, Recognized for leadership, community service

University of Rhode Island student Scott Andrews is president of both URI’s Chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the URI College Democrats. Those roles merge his passions and reflect his belief that a gap exists between community service and political activism, a gap Andrews works to bridge. For example, he envisions students raising a roof on a Habitat house in the morning and advocating for affordable housing at the Statehouse in the afternoon.

It’s not surprising that Campus Compact chose this man-of- action for its first group of 135 Newman Civic Fellows who come from 30 states. The award honors inspiring college student leaders who have demonstrated an investment in finding solutions for challenges facing communities throughout the country.

 

Last year, he enrolled in Gail Faris’ Honors Class, Classroom Without Borders, which focuses on issues of poverty, homelessness, hunger, and the Civil Rights Movement. During spring break, the class traveled to Birmingham, Ala. to work with Habitat for Humanity for a week. This year, Andrews spent another ASB in New Orleans with URI SAVES/URI Habitat for Humanity. Read the full story HERE!

 

Various Jumpstart Corps Members and Alumni Recognized

This year Jumpstart URI celebrated many service stories throughout the year, including current Corps members receiving honors for outstanding service and past Corps members, Jumpstart Alumni, being recognized by the community and URI for various service achievements and accomplishments.  One Jumpstart Corps Member, Victoria Lomas, was recognized by Serve RI at their “Voluncheers” event. Another Jumpstart Corps Member and Volunteer Coordinator alum, Courtney O’Keefe, was selected as the Rainville Servant Leader for 2011. In addition, two of Jumpstart URI’s alum Corps Member/Team Leaders, Stacey Welch and Evan White accepted full-time AmeriCorps positions after graduation. One will be serving with Partners in Routt County in Steamboat Springs, Colorado to mentor Middle School students. The second will be heading to Sacramento California to volunteer with AmeriCorps NCCC. Obviously these students are taking the amazing set of skills that they learn in Jumpstart and taking them on to new leadership positions nationwide.

 

Feinstein Civic Engagement Program

90 Lower College Road, Suite 12
Kingston, Rhode Island 02881

Sarah Miller, Coordinator
Roosevelt Hall Room 135
401-874-7422
Email: sgmiller@uri.edu

Clearinghouse for Volunteers

401-874-2568
Email: urivolunteers@gmail.com

Jumpstart URI

Catherine Cutlip, Site Manager
Roosevelt Hall Room 133
401-874-5539
jstartpv@etal.uri.edu

401-874-2090
jstart@etal.uri.edu