WSU Volunteers Serve Community, Garner National Recognition

OGDEN, Utah — Weber State University students, staff and faculty will participate in the National Make a Difference Day on Oct. 25. Volunteers will participate in two community projects — the kind of service that has brought national recognition to the university.
 For the first project, volunteers will package 10,000 meals in conjunction with the Stop Hunger Now organization, an international hunger relief agency.
 
“We picked this project to coincide with this year’s Engaged Learning Series, Food Matters,” said Mike Moon, assistant director for WSU’s Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL). “Stop Hunger Now is an organization that will ship those meals all over the world to needy places.”
 
For the second project, volunteers will go to the Ogden Cannery run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Canned food will be donated to the Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank in Ogden.
 
Volunteers will meet in Shepherd Union Ballroom A at 8 a.m. The projects will take approximately four hours.
 
During the 2013-14 school year, volunteers for CCEL logged over 176,000 hours of community service.
 
“This is another example of how Weber State is a steward for our local community,” Moon said. “Community is one of our core themes. Part of that community core theme is being an economic development contributor to our region. This is a very impactful way that we are doing that.”
 
For its civic contributions, WSU has been selected by the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) to participate in a national initiative on civic learning and democratic engagement for the third consecutive year. WSU is one of 92 universities and colleges in the nation to be named as a Lead Institution.
 
As a participating institution, WSU will continue to encourage students’ civic development through thoughtful community partnerships, engaging leadership opportunities and democratic participation.
 
“Being named to the NASPA Lead Initiative for the third straight year shows that WSU is a national leader in facilitating community engaged learning opportunities for students,” said Brenda Kowalewski, WSU’s CCEL director. “Nearly 100 institutions across the country now participate in the initiative to establish and share best practices with other institutions across the country.”
 
Selected institutions, representing public and private colleges and universities, have committed to a series of strategies to work in partnership with constituents on and off campus to influence students’ ongoing commitment to civic learning and democratic engagement.
 
For more information on WSU’s Food Matters Engaged Learning Series, visit weber.edu/ccel/foodmatters.html. For more information on Stop Hunger Now, visit stophungernow.org.
 
Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.
 
Author:
Marcus Jensen, Office of Marketing & Communications
801-626-7295 • marcusjensen@weber.edu
Contact:
Brenda Kowalewski, Center for Community Engaged Learning director
801-626-7737 • bkowalewski@weber.edu
 
Mike Moon, Center for Community Engaged Learning assistant director
801-626-6890 • mikemoon@weber.edu