Thursdays are a special day for University of Denver student Arimus Wells. Along with his normal course load and work-study program, Wells is in the third year of a volunteer program through the campus’ Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CCESL).
Each Thursday, Wells gathers on campus with a group of high school students from Aurora’s Rangeview High School. Together, they conduct community-based research that helps them identify an issue they care about. The annual sessions culminate in a service-learning project, where they volunteer to take specific action to help improve the community around them.
“We really focus on organizing and empowering students and individuals in the community around us,” Wells said. “Together with the students, we take ownership of our projects. We want to demonstrate to them, and to ourselves, that we are accountable for the well-being of the people around us.”
Wells’ efforts are part of a larger, ongoing movement at the University of Denver that finds students, faculty, and staff volunteering hundreds of thousands of hours in the local community every year. Since March of 2014, University of Denver students, faculty, staff, and alumni have logged more than 283,000 hours of community service, helping DU gain recognition as a winner of the prestigious Carnegie Foundation 2015 Community Engagement Honor.
The benefits of the University’s community programs come in many forms, not least of which is the effect on Denver’s economy. The University’s volunteer efforts over the past year represent almost $2,500,000 in work hours – a direct boost to Denver’s economy.
“Community engagement in teaching, research and campus life offers incredible opportunities,” said Dr. Anne DePrince, Director of CCESL. “DU students apply their academic learning within communities, developing skills that prepare them for their careers. Our faculty also addresses research questions with enormous public importance, oftentimes with student collaborators, preparing them to become the academic and civic leaders of tomorrow.”
The hands-on experienced gained via these programs is part of the reason, DePrince said, that 88 percent of DU graduates have at least one job offer at graduation.
It’s all part of DU’s larger vision to take the passion students have in their areas of interest, and turn that into purposeful, measurable activities both on and off campus. Since its founding in 1864, the privately-funded University of Denver has long had a reputation for being active in the community, but the philosophy became formalized with the creation of the “1864 Service Challenge” created during last year’s 150th anniversary celebration.
“We have an amazing collaborative community – alumni, students, board members, faculty and staff, donors and friends, who work together to educate our outstanding students and to serve the public good,” said University Chancellor Rebecca Chopp.
Wells said his three years in the CCESL programs have given him a greater wisdom about the communities around him and, he hopes, helped him inspire others to stop, take notice, and take part in building a better society around them.
“My students are the next generation of leaders,” he said, “It’s important that we address some of these issues within our community. Yes, we hope it makes the world a better place, but it also expands your own worldview. It makes you aware of some of your own privileges, as well as how difficult things can be for others in our community. Most of all, it makes you realize that you can, in fact, do something about it.”
