Students help the community and themselves
There won’t be a parade on Main Street, though they probably deserve one, for the Rhodes College students working on issues important to the community this summer as part of the Rhodes College Summer Service Fellowship program.
Nor for all those college students bunking in the basement at McLean Baptist Church while they mentor inner-city youth, set up community block parties, build access ramps for people with disabilities and the like in Serve901 work groups.
And there will not be thanks enough for the students who instead of tanning at Panama City or whatever show up during spring break every year, under the supervision of the Illinois-based group Living Lands & Waters, to gather up tons of trash that flow into McKellar Lake.
This list could go on and on. The point is the quality of life in Memphis and many other communities around the country would not be the same without students — sometimes paid a bit, sometimes on a purely volunteer basis — selflessly and regularly contributing to the lives of their communities, and their own lives as well.
Even middle and high school students around the country are not just being asked, but they’re being required these days to perform community service hours as part of their learning experience.
Community service work is on the rise across the country. According to Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofits, foundations and corporate giving programs that has been keeping track of this sort of thing since 1980, 59 percent of teenagers volunteer an average of 3.5 hours per week, at a total value of $7.7 billion. The value of volunteer time in Tennessee, the organization estimates, is $20.92 per hour.
Sometimes they get a little recognition, as when editors at this newspaper found it interesting enough to publish a story reporting on 16 Rhodes College students who are involved with the Summer Service Fellowship program this summer, working at Hope House, the Red Cross, Literacy Mid-South and other nonprofit organizations around town.
Each student devotes 36 hours per week to community projects and four hours per week to group building. They’re paid $3,492 for the summer, receive credit hours and are given free housing at Rhodes.
One of the most interesting facts about the program was that there were more than 50 applicants for the work.
Sure, there’s some resume building at play here, but there is no denying that these are opportunities for students to make a difference not only in the lives of less fortunate members of the community, but also the community as a whole.
In many cases, students who have lived sheltered lives get some needed exposure to the world’s realities, while they make a place like Memphis a better place for us all.