By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Missouri Western Center for Service is helping get students out to volunteer within the community and helping them gain life experience along the way.
Director Kim Sigrist says it was a successful fall semester with 174 serving dates since August 1st
"So that's us going out as a group, that's also just our students going out individually, so we kind of track things by that," Sigrist tells KFEQ Hotline host Barry Birr. "Our students have volunteered 1,072 hours since August 1st, we've had 257 volunteers."
Sigrist says one thing done every week during the semester is a GIVE day, or Griffons in Volunteer Engagement.
"We plan a volunteer opportunity in the community at a number of different places," Sigrist explains. "And it's just a really safe way for our students to feel like they can go out and volunteer, it's already kind of set up, we're going along with them so it's not so intimidating that they're going by themselves."
Sigrist says there were 13 GIVE events during the fall semester which helped organizations such as Second Harvest Food Bank, the open-door food kitchen.
Students also held a cleanup event at Mt. Mora cemetery to spread the service around the community, giving students the opportunity to make an impact.
Sigrist says while there are several benefits for students, one of the biggest benefits is free general elective credits.
"For 40 hours of volunteerism, that's verified, they do a survey at the end of their service, they write a reflection paper, and they debrief with me, and then they're awarded a free credit hour, free general elective credit hour," Sigrist says. "So that's kind of the biggie that we talk about in terms of the benefit."
Sigrist says the other big piece is within the community and the network it helps students build outside of the university.
Sigrist adds the program used to track volunteerism shows economic impact as well and the program shows an economic impact of $33,500 during the fall semester.
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