Though traditionally an ice cream social, this year the event was a dinner hosted in Lewis Sebring Commons, complete with a showcase and slideshow of 250 images of the various community service organizations and events in which students participated this academic year. The celebration commenced with a speech by Director of Community Outreach Scott Laidlaw, followed by remarks from President Tony Marx.
Many who attended the dinner most enjoyed being able to see what their fellow volunteers have been doing to help the community, and to see them recognized for their efforts.
"In the past they've just done a dessert reception and I thought it was good that they changed it to a dinner. It gave people a chance to sit down and talk to other people about community service," said Big Brothers Big Sisters Bonner Leader Rachael Gross '08. "For me, it was good to see what other people were doing on campus because I'm so involved with my organization, that I often don't know about or forget about all the other organizations that there are and all the people that are involved."
Phuong Vuong '09, Bonner Leader of El Arco Iris, a tutoring program, agreed and added, "The Community Outreach Center is trying to really create a culture of community engagement. If we're actively rewarding people for the work that they've done and it becomes something that is honored, I think it will change the culture here."
The senior winner of the Student Community Engagement Leadership Award was Eric Glustrom, founder and Co-Executive Director of the Amherst chapter of Educate!. Educate! helps refugees and underprivileged children in Africa attend school, and this year has hosted such fund-raisers as the Date Auction, Dodgeball Tournament and Casino Night. Glustrom said he was "very honored" and that one of his favorite aspects of the Educate! program is that members correspond and build friendships with the people they are helping.
Glustrom echoed a common sentiment among Community Outreach members, which is that volunteers often receive minimal recognition for what they do, so he was very pleased to see his peers' efforts rewarded, particularly those of Maggie Mattaini, '09. "She does a ton of stuff, and she's helped with Educate! a ton, and she really deserves to be recognized," said Glustrom. "There are some people who haven't been recognized very much for what they do … I thought it was nice that they recognized a lot of people like that."
Mattaini was the sophomore recipient of the AAS award. Her extensive list of community service includes serving as a tutor and mentor at El Arco Iris, being a member of MassPIRG Hunger and Homelessness and involvement in Educate!. She has gone on three alternative break trips to the Dominican Republic and has helped to found the new club Intercambio ¡YA!, a Dominican-Amherst Exchange which seeks to continue to organize trips, raise funds for community initiatives and share the volunteers' experiences with the campus. She has also worked with Catholic Call to Justice, Habitat for Humanity, the Food Bank Farm and the Amherst Christian Fellowship, among other organizations.
Although Mattaini appreciated the award, she explained that recognition is not very important to her. "These sorts of activities are usually as beneficial to the volunteer as they are for the community, and I have experienced many times the way in which service experiences have changed my life," she said.
The personal fulfillment, however, is supplementary. Faith is Mattaini's prime motivation. "I cannot call myself a Christian if I do not use my time in the love and service of those around me, whether it be my friends at the school, the dining hall workers or children in Holyoke," she said. "I cannot love God fully without loving his children, which means caring for the people in my life, especially the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed, for whom God has a special concern."
Laura Stein was the junior recipient of the AAS award. Two years ago, she helped found Tennis For Fun with her brother, Peter Stein '09 and Jennifer Murphy '08. Each week, the group spends time with some of the developmentally disabled Valentine Dining Hall employees and teach them basic tennis skills in Coolidge Cage. Stein, who ran similar programs in her home state of Maine, was motivated to start the program here after sensing limited interaction between the employees and the rest of the College community that they serve every day.
"Although tennis has served as the common link for the participants and the students, Tennis For Fun is about much more than the game of tennis," said Stein. "Peter, Jennifer and I have developed unique and valuable relationships with each participant of the clinic."
Nicholaus Mollel was the first-year recipient of the award. Mollel works with PLAN, a weekly tutoring program at Putnam Vocational High School in Springfield.
Says Mollel, "Working [with] these students has made me more patient and more inclined to know students than focusing on just teaching them how to approach exam problems. When you get to know the students, then you get to know which strategy will work better for them."
"We often focus on rewarding students who are involved in other ways on campus such as athletics or academics but we rarely focus on students who are doing community service work and it's important and it's what our college is increasingly focusing on and I think it was nice for AAS to co-sponsor the award with us," said Assistant Director of the Community Outreach Program, Karen Lee. "It's really hard to pick four students because there are so many students doing this kind of work and they are all so dedicated, but to honor a couple of them is nice."
The new Center for Community Engagement (CCE) intends to expand on the work and volunteer opportunities of the existing Community Outreach Office. Molly Mead, from Tufts University, has been hired to be the new director for the program.