Volunteer programs encourage IU students to get involved in community

Volunteering services on the IU campus not only give students a chance to gain off-campus experience, but a chance for them to learn more about Monroe County and its social issues.

Senior Daniel Watts serves as an Advocate for Community Engagement (ACE) at the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center. The ACE volunteering program has allowed him to witness social issues such as women’s rights, poverty, hunger and homelessness.

“It gives students a chance to step off the campus and get out of that college bubble that you can get caught in during your time at IU,” Watts said. “It gives students a chance to see real issues that affect Bloomington and other communities in the U.S.”

ACE is not the only organization that focuses on community service on the IU campus. The Volunteer Students Bureau offers volunteer opportunities to students like the ACE program does; however, these two programs meet different needs of the community.

When the VSB participated in the Student Involvement Fair, the organization incorporated the ACE program as a means to get students involved.  

“ACE and VSB help each other. We bridge opportunities to collaborate,” Rose said.

Developed in 2000, the ACE program works with the Office of Service-Learning. An ACE helps faculty members implement community service pedagogy into their coursework and connects the courses with community partners.

Each ACE works for a particular organization, and the ACEs research for courses that could meet a need at his or her particular agency. The ACE identifies possible projects in which a class can partake.

“ACEs help manage the extra work that service learning can create for faculty,” said ACE coordinator and grad student Colleen Rose. “They do a lot of the middle management and the management work that would take faculty members or coordinators at the various organizations a lot of extra time.”

The VSB has been at IU for about 35 years and has constantly changed its mission and approach, Rose said.

VSB used to be an organization where students went to find information on how and where they should get involved, she said.

The VSB’s mission is to focus on several events during the year and actively try to get students involved in volunteering.

Unlike VSB, many of the ACEs must pave the way for their organizations because they are small, relatively new and first-year participants in the program.

“An ACE must be an advocate for their agency. ... It is a very grassroots process,” Rose said.

ACEs, depending on their organization, must be up to the challenge of meeting various demands.

“Week-to-week, my duties are changing,” said senior Jennifer Jameson, Hoosier Hills Food Bank ACE.

ACE is more beneficial for those who know what type of volunteer activities in which they would like to partake. Prospective volunteers can contact the ACE of a particular agency that appeals to them, and the ACE could help them set up volunteer hours.

VSB offers a wide array of volunteer events that assist students in getting more involved in the community. If a student is unsure of what they are truly passionate about, VSB is the place to start, said junior Qian Liu, president of VSB and the
Habitat for Humanity ReStore ACE.

Whether it be ACE or VSB, community service is a prominent and unique aspect of the IU campus.

“Most IU students want to be a part of the community,” Jameson said. “It’s just a matter of getting out of their comfort zone. Once students know Monroe County is one of the poorest counties in Indiana they want to keep coming back and helping out. It’s neat that we focus on this mobilization here at IU because it is clearly a desire of many students.”