40+ SouthCoast high school students to take part in community service activities this Friday and Saturday
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More than 40 students from the SouthCoast will take part in a series of community service activities this Friday,August 21 and Saturday, August 22 as part of UMass Dartmouth’s newly organized High School Civic Leadership Institute. The students' two days of service will include a service project through the YMCA Sharing the Harvest Community Farm and visit the Edward M. Kennedy (EMK) Institute for the U.S. Senate in Boston.
The goal of the Institute is to support these students as youth service ambassadors who will create an environment of sustained civic engagement on the SouthCoast. The program will also include discussions and workshops on the importance of community service and the expectations of a service leader.
Taking part over these two days include freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors students who attend Bishop Connolly, BMC Durfee High School, City on a Hill New Bedford, Dartmouth High School, Dighton Rehoboth Regional High School, Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, New Bedford High School, Old Rochester Regional High School, PACE Youth, and Portsmouth Abbey.
The Institute was organized by UMass Dartmouth’s Leduc Center for Civic Engagement and SouthCoast Serves, a UMass Dartmouth collaborative that fosters service and volunteerism.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching selected UMass Dartmouth to receive the 2015 Community Engagement Classification, recognizing the University's commitment to serving the SouthCoast and the Commonwealth. In December UMass Dartmouth was recognized as among the national Top 20 in community service. This nationwide designation is part of the 2014 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, and recognizes UMass Dartmouth and its students for their commitment to service-learning and volunteer service.
In the past year, UMass Dartmouth students have dedicated 201,547 hours of community service at a value of $5.4 million to the community. More than 100 UMass Dartmouth faculty members taught more than 200 service-learning classes this past academic year that exposed close to 5,000 students to service-learning, taking part in projects that benefit our community.
UMass Dartmouth distinguishes itself as a vibrant public university actively engaged in personalized teaching and innovative research, and acting as an intellectual catalyst for regional economic, social, and cultural development. UMass Dartmouth's mandate to serve its community is realized through countless partnerships, programs, and other outreach efforts to engage the community, and apply its knowledge to help address local issues and empower others to facilitate change for all.