UCSC engages students in service to the city as they enter the College

As a new undergraduate student, reading is as common as breathing - but nursery rhymes? That's exactly what Julius Stein-Supanich was reading one recent morning during Engage Chicago Through Service Day, sponsored by the University Community Service Center.

Stein-Supanich is an incoming first-year who, along with 500-plus other students, spent one day after Orientation Week doing service projects throughout the neighborhoods surrounding the University.

This year, almost one-third of the participating organizations were schools, thanks to a calendar glitch that moved the original Saturday date to a school day. Many of the local elementary and high schools, both public and private, took advantage of the opportunity and wanted University students to work directly with their students conducting recess, serving food, talking about getting into college and participating in the children's normal school day.

The 24 kindergartners at the University of Chicago Charter School Donoghue Campus were told to stay seated, but they couldn't resist scooting closer to Stein-Supanich as he began to read The Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly. Throughout the story, the old lady swallowed many things, and the imaginative youngsters had a lot of questions.

"How did she get the horse in her mouth?" one child asked. "Did she explode?" asked another, genuinely concerned.

"As I was leaving the classroom, many of the kindergartners ran after me and hugged me," said Stein-Supanich, 18, who participated in similar service days with kids in his hometown Ann Arbor, Mich. "One of them even stood in my way so that I would not leave. They must have enjoyed the time that they spent with us."

It's never too soon to think about collegeTodd Barnett, Director of Family and Community Engagement at Donoghue, said the day provided an opportunity to interact with University students, which is crucial to planting the thought of college attendance in the students. "The earlier, the better. College has to be a real place for kids, not a mythical place you just hear about," Barnett said. "We talk a lot about college here, but this gives access that some students would not have."

Engage Chicago Through Service is one of three service days offered to students as they begin their studies at the University. Students at the Law School also were able to participate in similar daylong service projects. Entering first-year students who could not participate in Engage Chicago Through Service had another opportunity to do so during the Social Action Day of Service Sunday, Oct. 18.

The service days give College and Law School students a chance to begin lasting relationships with the surrounding neighborhoods.

"Contact with community members is what really matters," said David Hays, Assistant Director of the University Community Service Center. "We're asking them to take our students on our time, not their time, and they are opening their community to us."

Since 1995, a Day of Service has been part of undergraduate orientation. In 1996, Michelle Obama founded the University Community Service Center, which began to manage the day of service. UCSC initially made participation in the service days voluntary and limited to between 50 to 100 incoming first-year students. Since 2006, expanding the day in partnership with the College Programming Office, Engage Chicago Through Service has drawn more than 500 incoming students every year.

More opportunities to participate"This is a great way to introduce the students to the community around us, and it's important to engage them," Hays said. "Our hope is that this isn't the last time they leave campus."

The next opportunity for students to volunteer and engage with the city is Saturday, Nov. 21, for the UCSC fall day of service. During winter quarter, the service center will offer a day of service in conjunction with the University's MLK Day Celebrations. That service day will be Saturday, Jan. 16. More information is available by sending e-mail to: boz@uchicago.edu.

By Kadesha Thomas