By Mark Terranova, Assistant Director, The Shriver Center
Thomas Huxley wrote, "The great end is not knowledge, but action." Within this quote lies the very heart of community service and civic engagement - using what we know to do what should be done. Here at UMBC, we know a lot. What makes us great is what we do with it.
UMBC has a strong foundation and dedication to engagement. One of the recurring themes at this year's Convocation was a challenge to students to become engaged; to step out of their comfort zone - and to avoid taking the easy road of "disengagement". Many students answered this call immediately - participating in a community service event on the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend. Many more have already signed up for community service opportunities through the Involvement Center in Office of Student Life, the Residential Life Office, Athletics, the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, the Honors College, the Public Affairs Scholars Program, Women's Studies and many others who actively participate in the UMBC Serves initiative with The Shriver Center. This initiative is a direct call to civic engagement through community service to our students, faculty and staff. It is a call to action that is answered by hundreds of students and dozens of faculty already this year.
Engagement goes beyond community service. Many students and faculty become engaged in the community through the Professional Practice programs through The Shriver Center - applying their knowledge and skills to serve real world challenges in the workforce and the returning to campus with new questions and solutions to problems. Students also seek to become engaged though work, research, performance, or student government. Our students truly become engaged while here at UMBC.
Throughout the year many opportunities to become civically engaged may become available to our faculty and staff. Whether it is through the integration of service-learning into a course; hands on work with outstanding student groups like Best Buddies, Habitat for Humanity, and many others; or action-based research though the disciplines to address local and pressing community issues - our civic involvement through engagement defines us not only as what we do but who we are. The acceptance of this challenge is one of the many distinguishing characteristics of this institution, and through our commitment to our surrounding community through service, we can distinguish ourselves not only as an exceptional university but also as exceptional citizens in our community.
One of the newest ways to become involved in community service is through CollTown's 9/11 Remembrance Project. All members of the UMBC community are encouraged to pledge hours of service to a non-profit organization of their choosing. For more information visit www.umbc.edu/9-11 or contact Lee Hawthorne at hawthor@umbc.edu or Cally Rockwell at rockwell@umbc.edu.
Each month this column will highlight community service and civic engagement here at UMBC. I invite our entire campus community to participate in these discussions to increase our knowledge, and more importantly I invite you to participate in the many UMBC Serves activities planned for this year to increase our action.
