By Kailyn Gaines, News Correspondent
In honor of the 10th annual Northeastern Service Day, students gathered in the Krentzman Quadrangle Saturday to enjoy a Dunkin’ Donuts breakfast and kickoff celebration before going out and serving an approximate 4,000 hours of community service.
Over 500 participants were divided into teams and assigned two team leaders, who helped the groups navigate their way to 23 different service sites in Boston, Roxbury, Newton and even on campus. Organizations hosting Northeastern students included longtime university partners like 826 Boston and Jumpstart, as well as new groups like the Franklin Park Zoo, Discover Roxbury and Room to Grow.
For the first time, students were able to sign up at the kickoff for individual projects rather than being placed at sites.
“This year we wanted to let the students choose where they wanted to serve and how they wanted to serve,” Hilary Sullivan, associate director for Service and Community Partnerships at the Center of Community Service, said.
Sullivan noted that the businesses students work with look forward to the Service Day every year.
“[Our partners] absolutely love this day,” Sullivan said. “[They] kind of wait for this, it’s the largest service day that we put on, so our partners really wait for it.”
From volunteering along the sidelines of the Mission Hill Road Race and serving at information tables for Roxbury Open Studios to painting murals for afterschool programs with the NU Mural Club and preparing materials for the Boston Book Festival, each student walked away with an exclusive experience of service and a new perspective of what it means to be a member of the Boston community.
Emily Deurloo, a sophomore biology major who served among the service day’s first generation of team leaders, went through weeks of leadership and service-minded training in preparation for the event.
“My team split up, so I actually enjoyed coming back for lunch and meeting with my team and hearing what everyone thought about it,” Deurloo said. “We each got to see a lot of different aspects of the community, and being able to hear what people learned and how they were enjoying their day.”
Ana Porta, a freshman in the undeclared program who served with Discover Roxbury, enjoyed the event because it gave her an opportunity to shift her focus.
“I think as college students we can tend to be kind of selfish, because all we have to look after is ourselves,” Porta said. “But I think through service and opportunities like the Service Day we can kind of get out of that mindset and learn to embrace the community as a whole.”
It’s this level of community involvement and dedication that helps Northeastern maintain strong ties with multiple organizations, according to Sullivan.
“They’re really grateful for the students,” she said, “They always talk about how hardworking the students are. With some of our partners from the summer they talked about how every student helped out until the end, how every student was engaged. We generally get really positive feedback.”
Though Service Day is over until next year, there are many other means and programs through which students can get involved caring for the larger community.
“People don’t always know that there is a Center of Community Service and that we have a ton of leadership opportunities for students,” Sullivan said. “That’s the goal. We really want students to get involved beyond one day of service.”
