Colgate mentors and Madison middle school members of Ophelia’s Girls.
The Max A. Shacknai COVE advises 39 student-led, community-based volunteer teams. These teams cover a wide range of issues and help students build an abundance of skills. Approximately 650 students representing about 23% of the Colgate population participate regularly in a volunteer team. This year, volunteer teams performed more than 18,000 hours of service in the local community.
Service outcomes of ongoing service projects:
- Tutored more than 200 local school children in at all grade levels
- Mentored more than 190 school-aged children
- Provided after-school enrichment activities to an additional 75 local children
- Improved academic and social confidence of the children tutored and mentored
- Improved SAT scores of 50 local high school students by an average of 100 points
- Assisted more than 150 elderly and low-income adults
- Served more than 800 individuals at the soup kitchen and food cupboard
- Assisted in responding to more than 800 fire and EMS emergency calls
- Contributed more than 600 hours responding to the Victims of Violence hotline
- Provided care to more than 800 shelter animals
- Contributed to a cohesive, caring community
Teams reported success in:
- Creating team reflection time
- Practicing regular and open communication with their community partner
- Articulating the root causes of social inequity related to the team’s issue areas
- Formulating action steps to impact the relevant social issue
- Reaching the team’s direct service goal
- Reaching the team’s social change goal
This year, we brought on four new volunteer teams:
- Madison EMS
Madison EMS is a nonprofit ambulance service covering the greater Madison area. Students commit significant hours to training and are scheduled for approximately 6 on-call hours each week. - Global Brigades
Global Brigades is an international nonprofit that empowers communities to meet their health and economical goals through university volunteers and local teams. Through Global Brigades, student and professional volunteers assist communities in developing countries with sustainable solutions that improve quality of life and environment, while respecting local culture. - BRITE
Students travel to Sherburne-Earlville Middle School weekly to provide 6th graders with after-school activities including crafts, sports and games. - North Broad Street Bridge to Middle School
North Broad Street Mentoring provides after-school programming weekly for 3rd to 6th graders from Oneida’s North Broad Street Elementary School. Colgate students provide fun and educational activities and help the young students to have positive interactions with adults and their peers.
In addition to regular volunteer service, volunteer teams plan a number of complementary events to increase the work and impact of the team. Here’s a sampling of events volunteer teams planned this year in addition to their ongoing direct service work:
- Take Back the Night March and Speak Out offers a safe and supportive opportunity for sexual violence survivors and the people who love them to publicly affirm their transition from victim to survivor
- The Network brought Julia Dixon, a sexual assault survivor and fierce advocate for survivor support, who appeared on stage with Lady Gaga during her Oscar performance of “Til It Happens to You”
- The Network sponsored brown bag luncheons on Trigger Warnings and Their Place on College Campuses and A Day in the Life of a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner
- The Network brought a I Stand with Survivors photo display
- The Colgate Hunger Outreach Project collaborated with University Church and the Newman Community for a Hunger Banquet, a hunger simulation activity and sponsored a brown bag on Hunger Outreach Programs in Madison County
- Oxfam sponsored a brown bag on Healthcare for All: Barriers and Inequality
- Several education-related teams sponsored a brown bag on Disability Labels and Social Inequality in Education and a brown bag on the Hippocratic Oath for Tutors
- Rotaract collaborated with the First-Year Class Council, Track Teams, and Student Government to coordinate a 5K Memorial Run in honor of Carey Dupuy `19 and Ryan Adams `19
- engAGE sponsored a brown bag on the Complexity of Aging in Different Cultures
- Celebration of Service recognized the work of our student volunteers and the community organizations that host them
- American Heart Association sponsored a Spin-A-Thon and a Burrito Run fundraiser
- Some teams sponsored an afternoon of service in which students put together holiday care packages to mail to troops stationed abroad and to carve pumpkins to decorate the Chenango Canal for the Halloween Canal Walk