Credit: Sonia Gonzales

Camden senior Kelly McGloughlin, a childhood studies major, does community service work as a teacher’s aide at the LEAP Academy University Charter School and earns three credits for it.

In his election night victory speech, President-elect Barack Obama called on Americans to offer up “a new spirit of service” and pledged to make community service one of the cornerstones of his new administration.

For the past two decades, Rutgers has demonstrated its own commitment to community service. In 1988, the university’s then-President Edward J. Bloustein proposed service to the community as an integral component of a liberal education, and Rutgers dedicated itself to citizenship, service, and diversity.

Now, as community service gains the national spotlight, Rutgers’ students, faculty, and staff are finding more ways to integrate public service and volunteer work into their coursework and off-campus hours.

“Students today are less materialistic. They are moving away from conspicuous consumption and seem to care more about the intangibles,” said Marc Holzer, dean of the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers–Newark. “The phrase you hear a lot is, `I want to give back to the community.’”

This semester, the School of Public Affairs and Administration launched a public service major, which attracted 75 students. Holzer said that the undergraduate degree in public service has opened up a path for students to give back, whether on an internship level, a volunteer level, or ultimately through their careers, Holzer said. “Students may continue to volunteer after graduating or choose a public service career in government, nonprofits, criminal justice, or law,” he said.

Rutgers senior helps launch nonprofit to bring rehabilitation services to St. Lucia

On every Rutgers campus, students find a way to serve.

Every Friday, Kelly A. McLoughlin steps into a prekindergarten class at the Rutgers LEAP Academy University Charter School in Camden, ready to help four-year-olds learn to read. A childhood studies senior at Rutgers–Camden College of Arts and Sciences, McLoughlin, 25, is doing community service work as a teacher’s aide and earning three credits for it.

Through Rutgers–Camden’s Early Childhood Education undergraduate program, McCoughlin is assisting the charter school’s teachers while learning preschool teaching skills, such as developing positive discipline and conflict resolution. She said that she is touched by the struggles her young students face daily.

 “You realize the importance of getting involved with the community after you see what some of these kids and their families go through – and what an effort it is to keep them safe and in a safe environment, ” McLoughlin said.

No firm statistics exist on how many Rutgers students have volunteered for community service, as many volunteer through clubs and religious institutions, as well as through the university. And community service can be defined as something as simple as participating in a charity fundraiser such as the Big Chill race to help kids or as complex as starting your own nonprofit organization.

Rutgers senior Adam Kant, for example, spent months setting up a nonprofit organization to bring rehabilitation services to a hospital on St. Lucia, a small island northwest of Barbados. The project was inspired by his mother, Heidi Klingbeil, an assistant attending professor of rehabilitation medicine at Columbia University. Kant ended up earning nine credits for his work on St. Lucia.

Two faculty members have a vision to create a major pathway for Rutgers students in community service. Isabel Nazario, associate vice president of Academic and Public Partnerships in the Arts and Humanities, and Maurice Elias, professor of psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences, are trying to coordinate all service learning throughout the campuses to allow students to earn credit for their service.

Under their plan, all departments would offer one-credit recitation sections to accompany each student’s service, which would provide an academic component that is too often missing in public service, Elias said. The aim is not only to engage students in responsible and thoughtful ways but also to ensure that their community services include academic rigor, according to Nazario.

 “If we turn out geniuses without any social consciousness, we are not doing anyone any favors,” said Elias, who is the new head of the Civic Engagement and Service Education Partnerships Program (CESEP). The CESEP initiative, an expansion of Rutgers’ 25-year-old Citizenship and Service Education (CASE) program, grew out of conversations that followed the 2006 overall restructuring of undergraduate education at Rutgers.

CESEP’s mission is two-fold: to facilitate service learning universitywide and for Rutgers students to gain a commitment to social engagement and public scholarship, Elias said. The objectives would mesh on a national level with Obama’s call for a tax credit for all college students who perform 100 hours of community service.

The work done by student volunteers “helps give voice to many citizens who don’t feel enfranchised or heard or part of society,” Elias said.

Richard White, director of Career Services in New Brunswick, said that community service benefits students in another important way: It can help them land a job. Community service provides students with skills and experience that academics alone does not provide, according to White.

Among the top five skills sought by job recruiters: teamwork, cultural competency, an appreciation for diversity, the ability to work for a variety of people, and, most importantly, the ability to get along with others, White said.

Rutgers students’ interest in community service was demonstrated last month at Student Involvement Day, when between 300 and 400 students signed up for projects. Another 200 students participated in the Scarlet Day of Service in October.

 Why do students sign up for service?  “You meet a lot of great people. I felt really good when working with OXFAM last year and got the Rutgers administration to sign onto not selling sweat labor clothing on campus,” said Parisa Kharazi, a Rutgers junior who attended the fair.

Rutgers students help at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and at Middlesex County Head Start. In New Brunswick, Rutgers’ senior Enrique Noguera is interning with Lazos America Unida, a grassroots organization working to create a nonprofit 4-H program in the city.  So far, Noguera has recruited 20 volunteers for the program. 4-H programs are offered through Cooperative Extension, the outreach and educational arm of Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, which has offices in all 21 counties in New Jersey.

Some Rutgers students dedicate themselves to public service work regardless of academic credit.

For the next five to six years, Isaiah Friday has a big commitment on his hands. He’s mentoring 15 middle school students in Jersey City, with the goal of getting them enrolled in college. “I’ll be with them all the way until they sign the acceptance letter,” Friday said.

A Rutgers–Newark junior majoring in public service, Friday will spend Saturdays for the next five to six years at Rutgers’ Upward Bound program with the 15 students, helping them with their schoolwork and keeping them focused on getting a good education. He hopes they’ll all go on to higher education, but more important, he said, “I want them to learn that they are responsible for their future and that they can be productive, whether they are in the workforce or in college.’’