Student community service opens doors and eyes

Colleges and universities across Rhode Island are placing a heavier emphasis on community service for their students,, which they say helps turn out more job market-ready graduates.
Service-minded students are arguably more fitted to the competitions of the workforce because of hands-on experience, industry knowledge and well-developed networking skills. Faculty and staff also say that service work motivates recent graduates to seek work in-state.
Meghan Griffiths, assistant director of Providence College’s Feinstein Institute for Public Service and a faculty member in the school’s Public and Community Service Studies department, said that majors in her department invest heavily in the community through service work and internships at local nonprofits.
“It’s a lot easier to find a job once you’ve invested in the community and have a professional network than it is to then try and go to some new city or even go home,” Griffiths said. “A lot of our majors either stay in Providence, or return to Providence after a short stint away because they have sort of cultivated that network here.”
Kelly Powers, community service director at Salve Regina University, said the relationship between performing service and getting a job can be even more direct.
“A lot of [students] pick their majors or, really, get a job because they’ve started volunteering and then they got an internship, and then they got a paid position as a student, and then they get hired full time once they graduate,” Powers said. “A lot of students see it as a gateway.”
While many Rhode Island institutions don’t track all their students’ volunteer hours, anecdotal evidence shows increased dedication to community service across the region.
The Rhode Island School of Design has been intentionally and strategically developing its service programs over the past four years. Providence College, home of a long-running service tradition, instituted a new civic engagement proficiency requirement for graduation during a recent curriculum overhaul. All students at Salve Regina University must complete at least 10 hours of service by graduation – and the opportunities to do so have expanded greatly. Student clubs and organizations at Rhode Island College independently organize a variety of service opportunities for their members, said Michael Giacalone, student activities program coordinator – and their capacity also keeps growing.
“I think that there’s just a level of community consciousness that our students have and that college students have,” Giacalone said. “The college’s attitude is that we are extremely supportive of it, and it is something that … has grown.”e
One reason for a heightened sense of civic duty may be students’ own desire for direction. Hands-on volunteer work can show uncertain college students their own strengths and weaknesses. For Shannon Finnell, service work pushed her into a completely different major than she originally envisioned. The 2014 Salve Regina University graduate participated in several service programs, and completed more than 300 hours of service work in her freshman year alone.
“I originally wanted to go into social work to be able to help people on kind of a face-to-face basis,” Finnell said.
After her volunteer work, however, Finnell ended up majoring in business and finance with a minor in international studies, and completed paid internships in finance, sales and marketing. She’s now working at her alma mater as an AmeriCorps Vista member in the Office of Community Service. While Finnell still hopes to work in the nonprofit world, her experience pushed her toward a different side of operations.
“I guess through volunteering, I kind of learned that I’d rather do more of the behind-the-scene work of the organizations,” Finnell said.
Providence College senior Elizabeth Gaitskill, a public and community service major, said service helped her pin down her exact post-graduation goal: a year off, then nursing school.
“I’ve always been interested in health care, but I think where I was going to fall in health care was determined by my interactions that I’ve had through service,” she said.
Some service initiatives provide experience growing projects from the ground up. Providence College’s School of Business students pitched in on the development of Common Grounds Café, which grew out of an existing partnership with the Smith Hill Community Development Corporation. This kind of immersive experience is invaluable, Griffiths said.
“They’re learning how nonprofits work,” she said. “They’re really gaining some valuable skills.”
For-profit businesses usually enter the equation when it’s time for students to find internships.
Charlie Kelley, executive director of the R.I. Student Loan Authority, is a major proponent of projects that make the matchmaking process easier. RISLA – along with partners including the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode Island, the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education, and the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce – have developed bRIdge.jobs, a website that connects employers and prospective interns statewide.
“Literally, just a couple years ago, people were still putting 3-by-5 cards up on bulletin boards,” Kelley said. “What we’re trying to do is increase the comfort level and lower the barriers.”
The website also details a number of financial incentives for internship development. Students who complete internships are eligible to apply for partial loan forgiveness of RISLA loans. Employers are encouraged to offer subsidized paid internships by participating in the Governor’s Workforce Board program. Small businesses can also apply for the Innovate Rhode Island Small Business Fund, which, among other purposes, can go toward hiring interns.
Susan Andersen, assistant director of employer relations at RISD’s career center, said students with a service background have the sought-after skills.
“Companies and organizations that seek interns are looking for students who are creative problem solvers, self-motivated, effective communicators, natural collaborators, and possess values and passions that are a match to their organizational culture and mission,” Andersen said. “Students who have volunteered, or been involved in community-service projects, have had exposure and opportunities to develop their skills in these areas.”
For the other side of the table, there is a strategic way for businesses to draw in the talents of service-minded students, said Kate Trimble, acting director of Brown University’s Swearer Center for Public Service: Care about what they care about. Companies that embrace the idea of corporate social responsibility through philanthropic foundation work or employee volunteering are an attractive option to students who care about service.
“Students that see companies with a sincere and authentic and deep commitment to social issues, whether they’re for-profit or nonprofit, that’s certainly going to be a draw,” Trimble said. So they are “not just working for the bottom line, but they’re advancing something that’s arguably more meaningful in the world.” •

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