Service Fair ‘critical’ to getting students involved in serving
“I think it’s super important to introduce the service opportunities to not just our new students, but our returning students, early on,” said Hardie.
“We email a lot of different community partners, and we send them an invitation,” said Adrienne Tharp, coordinator of the Bonner Scholar Program. “So, from semester to semester we don’t really know who’s going to come until a couple weeks before. We have a ton of new places this time.”
“We had a large increase in partners and we had a lot of people calling us that just heard about it and wanted to be apart of it,” said Tharp. “So that was really exciting to have some new faces; new organizations…I think it’s fun to see all the partners get excited about the students, and the community [loves] our students.”
“Even from the get-go, at 10 a.m., there were a lot of students talking to the different service partners,” said Hardie.
“It’s just exciting to see students come in and find their niche and where they’re really passionate about serving,” she said. “I’ve seen students change their majors because of where they’ve served.”
“We’ve got a service site every single day that students can go to, and every single Saturday-as well as lots of domestic and international trips that they can sill participate in,” said Hardie. “We have a lot happening here.”
“I love fulfilling our mission, so to make that mission come alive is so awesome to see,” she said. “To see our students come in and talk to us about the many positive stories because of their service experiences…it’s incredible.”