Responsible Office: Student Development
Policy Administrator: VP for Student Development
Scope: |Student

Approved By: VP/Provost

Approved Date: 7/1/2017

Effective Date: 7/1/2017

Category: Student

Description/Purpose:

 Information on Service Opportunities at SFU: 

Community Service

Service Learning

Ambassador Program

Mission Trips

HUGS

Habitat for Humanity

Finding Opportunities

Recording Service

Details:

 A heart for service is integral to the mission of the University. Our heart for service comes from the lessons that our patron St. Francis of Assisi himself imparted on us. St. Francis taught us that those had been given much are expected to give back. Guided by the Franciscan Goals of Higher Education, in particular, the call to serve the poor and needy, students at Saint Francis University put their faith into action.

There are many opportunities to serve others both on and off campus, and even around the world. The Dorothy Day Outreach Center, located on campus, focuses on the needs within the local community food, clothing, fuel assistance, financial literacy, educational initiatives, and more. The Center for Community Engagement collaborates with students, faculty, staff and community partners to serve these units as a catalyst for impactful community service both locally and around the world. The CCE supports faculty who teach community-engaged courses, collaborates with community partners to address societal needs is nome to SFU Serves Ambassadors program and sponsors domestic and international service mission trips. Students looking for community service opportunities may connect with community partners in need of volunteers are identified on the OrgSync homepage under Service Partners.

Community Service

Our students volunteer thousands of hours each year by participating in community service projects as individuals and as groups. Service to others is a way of life for our athletics teams, Greek communities, and nearly every student organization on campus. Service to others is embedded in the culture of our University. And community service is one of the six transformational experiences for our students as identified in the University's strategic plan Francis 2020.

Service-Learning

Many courses at Saint Francis University require community service as a part of the curriculum. Faculty incorporates service-learning components into their courses to help students make important connections between what they are learning in the classroom with their service outside the classroom. The RLST105 course has a service-learning requirement of 10 hours of community service.

The SFU Serves Ambassador Program

This program pairs students with faculty who are teaching courses with a service-learning component or who are responsible for large community service projects. The students assist the faculty with logistics which often take a large amount of effort and time.

Service Mission Trips

We offer a variety of domestic and international service mission trips. These experiences expose students to issues of poverty and injustice as they experience different cultures and environments.

HUGS (Helping the Underprivileged by Giving our Service)

International Alternative Spring Break program welcomes volunteers from all academic disciplines. In particular, HUGS trips are health science majors because they are able to help provide medical care and rehabilitation therapy in rural clinics. Spanish minors provide medical translations services on some of the trips, and business majors conduct a micro-lending program. Over the past decade, HUGS volunteers have traveled to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Brazil.

The Habitat for Humanity

Collegiate Challenge is an example of a domestic service trip that our students go on over spring break. In recent years, teams have gone to South Carolina and Florida.

Find Volunteer Opportunities

Visit OrgSync homepage, Service Partners

To Record your community service: Log into your OrgSync account, go to Involvement, and enter your service activity. The information you enter will be recorded on your co-curricular transcript which is a great tool to have in hand when preparing a resume. Questions about Service Opportunities? Contact the Center for Service & Learning, Francis Hall 136.