-Ben Harper
In the spring of 1988 a grant was written and submitted by Jan McDougall to the State ACTION Agency (now The Corporation for National & Community Service). Before submitting the grant, Jan consulted with the Associated Students of ISU to see if it were something that students would support. The student leaders of ISU felt that it was something that would be supported by students and worthy of pursuing. The grant was awarded for three years, and the program was named University Students for Youth. In September of 1988, one half-time staff member was hired to coordinate the program.
The first year was devoted to establishing contacts with local agencies, developing volunteer opportunities, and filling those opportunities with a volunteer base. By the year’s end relationships were built with agencies. The scope of the program had grown beyond working with just youth issues.
In fall of 1989 eight student leaders were selected to work with agencies to develop service options and recruit other student volunteers. Those student leaders chose to change the name of the program to be more inclusive of many service areas. The name of the program became The Students' Community Service Center (SCSC).
Also that fall a group of graduate students, faculty, and staff volunteers worked very hard to develop and launch ISU Recycling in February of 1990. ISU Recycling became a program of The Students' Community Service Center and housed there. At its inception, recycling was done in eight buildings around the Quadrangle. Within two months there was so much interest that the recycling program had expanded to 32 buildings on campus. Volunteers from the committee collected the recyclables.
In the fall of 1990 a student was hired from the College of Technology to work part-time as an administrative assistant. One student was hired to collect recyclables, and by spring semester another student was hired to help with that rapidly expanding program.
In 1991 a grant was sought from the USDA to start a Youth Mentoring Program in the public schools, utilizing ISU students as mentors. At the time it was the only program like it in the country. The USDA granted the SCSC for six years to further develop the Youth Mentoring Program. Other programs continued to be developed and expanded the SCSC’s operations: Alternative Spring Break, Into the Streets, Student Action Volunteers for the Environment, the Bonner Leaders Program, three Red Cross blood drives each year, one Bone Marrow drive each year, and one toiletries drive each year at Christmas.
The first year University Students for Youth delivered 262 volunteers and 3,040 volunteer hours to the community. By the fall of 2001 The Students' Community Service Center celebrated its 10,000 Volunteer mark with (10,729 volunteers accumulated), its 150,000 Volunteer Hour mark with (155,440 volunteer hours accumulated), and its mark of a Million Dollars value to the community with ($1,088,080 accumulated) at the value of $7/hour placed on volunteer time by the Associated Students of ISU.
The SCSC became a fully funded program of the Pond Student Union in 1997. The Center is now staffed with one full-time director, one work-study volunteer coordinator, one work-study recycling coordinator, and one work-study administrative assistant.
The Students’ Community Service Center has engaged ISU students in every kind of service option that the region offers, giving them hands-on transferable skills to take into the professional world. These experiences enable students to build skills and develop community & social networks that support the educational mission of Idaho State University and the educational enhancement mission of the Division of Student Affairs. The program has delivered immeasurable benefits to the community and serves as an important bridge between ISU and the surrounding communities.
The Alternative Spring Break Program (ASB) has provided opportunities for ISU students to travel to other parts of the country to experience many types of diversity and to understand the broader social issues that affect the nation. Their exposure to the non-profit world presents them with the possibilities of applying most any discipline to professional employment opportunities with agencies working on national and global issues.
ASB has taken students to Atlanta to work in homeless shelters for men and women & children, Tucson to help build transitional housing for Viet Nam Veterans, New Orleans (4 times prior to Hurricane Katrina) to rehab homes purchased by Volunteers of America New Orleans for men coming out of drug and alcohol rehab, New Orleans one time for Hurricane Katrina relief, New York two times to work with Housing Works an agency that provides housing for homeless people living on the streets with HIV and AIDS, Boston to work at the Codman Medical Center which provides jobs and medical care to people in a once blighted neighborhood that has now been revitalized by the Neighborhood Reinvestment Program, Puerto Rico to work in a Rain Forest Reserve, Mexico to work in an estuary, and most recently Mississippi for ongoing Katrina relief.
As students navigate through their higher education experience, it is most important to expose them to the broader context in which they will live and work. Programs of the Division of Student affairs seek to engage them. Engagement helps them to understand that participation in community is vital, that they will be the citizens and leaders who shape social policy, and that utilizing their education to actively participate in the world around them makes a strong Union with a strong citizenry. This and other programs of the Division of Student Affairs at Idaho State University serve these purposes with programs that immerse ISU students in countless opportunities to grow beyond what they once might have envisioned.