Boston University Community Service Center

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The Boston University Community Service Center (CSC)[1] is a non-profit and almost entirely student run office within Boston University. The CSC has one paid staff member, the Coordinator of Programs and Administration (COPA), a position that was recently vacated, but has been filled as of February 12th, 2007. At times the CSC may also have a Graduate Intern (GI), which is usually a half time position. The CSC offers 13 different volunteer opportunities for students in different issues that affect the Boston community and the world as a whole. Some of the general issues the service of CSC volunteers address include: hunger, children, disabilities, and education assistance. The CSC has 13 programs, with the addition of Student Studio in the Fall 2006 semester. Eleven of these programs are continual commitments throughout the school year and they are as follows with a brief description.

• Afterschool, volunteers tutor elementary school students and participate in recreational activities and arts and crafts.
• Children's Theater, volunteers write and perform plays to perform at Boston schools and daycare centers.
• Joining Hands, volunteers work with various agencies that serve people with disabilities in Boston.
• Making Music, volunteers offer their talents to instruct children one-on-one in instrument or vocal lessons.
• Multicultural Advancement Partnership Program (MAPP), volunteers work with people of limited English fluency helping them adjust to life in Boston.
• Project Hope, several groups of volunteers work at sites throughout Boston that serve the population who have HIV/AIDS.
• Siblings, volunteers are one-on-one mentors and share cultural, recreational, and educational experiences with their "sibling".
• Student Food Rescue, this award winning program works to fight hunger in Boston and runs the largest college food salvage program in the nation.
• Student Studio, the CSC's newest program as of September 2006, is an art mentoring program with middle school children. A one-on-one interaction in visual arts is the main service of Student Studio.
• Voices from the Middle, volunteers help 8th graders write and perform their own play based on a social justice issue.
• Wizards, volunteers introduce the wonders of sciences to elementary-school children with a different hands-on experiment each week.

In addition to these 11 continuing programs there are two annual programs offered to volunteers in the Boston University community. These are the First Year Student Outreach Project (FYSOP)[2] and the Alternative Spring Breaks (ASB) program. These programs are generally very popular with the student body attracting nearly 900 volunteers between the two programs. The FYSOP and ASB programs occur at only one time during the year, but there are students who work to plan the events year-round.

• Alternative Spring Breaks (ASB), is a popular program that involves student volunteers traveling to sites throughout the country to volunteer. The service done on an ASB trips addresses the concerns of many of the other CSC programs: environment, affordable housing, HIV/AIDS Awareness, and children. The students travel to their service site by car, using a large van to transport 12 students, a faculty chaperone, and minimal baggage. The sites for the ASB program are typically in the US south and midwest. For example, the program for 2007 will include 23 trips to places like Georgia, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Kentucky, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The ASB program is run by two Program Managers (PMs) and each trip is coordinated by two students who apply for the jobs in early Fall.
• First Year Student Outreach Project (FYSOP), is a program that just celebrated its 18th year. FYSOP involves about 500 incoming Freshman and transfer students, the "First Years", who volunteer at sites throughout Massachusetts. FYSOP takes place in the week prior to the start of classes and consists of an opening day, an education day, and three days of on-site service. The First Years are split into small groups lead by upperclassmen FYSOP staff members, of which there are normally about 125. Several of these small groups make up each of the eight service issue areas: Children, Disabilities, Elders, Environment, HIV/AIDS Awareness, Gender Focus, Homelessness and Housing, and Hunger. In 2007, FYSOP will add one more issue area: Human Rights. Every participant of the program is a volunteer, except the one program manager and the 18 coordinators (two per issue area), who are paid for dedicating their summer to planning FYSOP and their issue area. The other leaders of the program are the FYSOP staff members who spend a week training in preparation for the arrival of the First Year students.