Volunteer Opportunities
Community engagement is thriving at Westminster College! As a student, faculty or staff person at Westminster, you are able to partake in a variety of community service experiences, philanthropic activities or service-learning courses numerous times in a given year.
Consider the following questions:
- What/whom do you like to work with (for example, kids, senior citizens, animals, construction)? What are your strengths or growing edges here?
- What past volunteer experiences have you enjoyed and not enjoyed?
- How much of a time commitment do you have to volunteer?
- Who will you partner with as you engage in service with this group or project?
- What do you hope to get out of your volunteer experience?
Contact the Office of Community Engagement & Service-Learning (573-592-6213) for more information on community service, philanthropic activities and service-learning courses.
Want to engage, but need some help?
The Office of Community Engagement provides regular support for faculty, staff, and students seeking service opportunities and wondering how they might better serve their communities. From the philanthropic ambitions of the Fraternities and Sororities to individual students, we seek to support the Westminster community in their service goals.
For example, the Pre-healthcare Professionals Association sought our help in organizing a 5k fun run and benefit to help promote healthy behavior. Our office not only offered financial support through our programming budget, but also provided assistance with planning, marketing, and the execution of the event over a weekend in October.
Volunteer Opportunities
- Tutoring & Mentoring Program: The Office of Community Engagment coordinates the Blue Jay Buddies program, which places volunteer students in local elementary schools. This program has been successful for a number of years at McIntire Elementary, and has recently expanded to include Bush Elementary. Give just one hour of your week to mentoring and tutoring kids in nearby Fulton public schools. Commit at the beginning of each semester to provide one hour each week, and in return, gain the trust and friendship of someone that needs just a little bit of help.
- Adopt A Grandparent Program: Give just one hour of your week to spending some time with a new friend at Presbyterian Manor Retirement Facility. Play Bingo, knit/crochet, read, watch movies, or just talk with someone that might not get a visitor each day.
- New Student Service Day & Projects: a part of orientation and LST 101 curriculum
- Coin drive for United Way each September
- Into the Streets: annual campus-wide week of service projects during Homecoming
- Annual MLK Jr. Day of Service
- Spring Break Service Trip
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Collaboration with the Office of Spiritual Life to host a Thursday @ 11 event with the purpose of supporting Community Engagement on campus (two or more times per year
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Volunteers serve at the Fulton Soup Kitchen the third Thursday of every month (coordinated by service Corps). The Soup Kitchen is located down the street from Westminster College at the John C. Harris Community Center. Students volunteer once or trice a month to cook and serve. Contact a Service Corps representative for more information.
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The Coordinator is part of guest speaking engagements for several Westminster Seminar classes, as well as providing support for courses in which students are required to complete a name of community service hours, such as LST 101.
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Participate in American Red Cross Blood Drives (four times per year - each campus blood drive is scheduled at least 59 days apart so that blood donors will be eligible to participate in each of the campus blood drives). All blood drives are held on campus at the Mueller Student Center. To know if you are eligible to donate blood, click here. Check RapidPass, it allows you to start the blood donation process from our home or office and save time at the donation site. For more information, visit American Red Cross. We have consistently exceeded our goals through outreach and personalized training or our sponsoring group representatives.
- Westminster's community garden has volunteer opportunities for a fun-filled community work day as we pull weeds, harvest vegetables and prepare our mini greenhouse. We provide fresh fruits and vegetables and build a better community and share the harvest with the broader Fulton community. Our community garden is located behind the Center for Faith & Service.