IU Initiative Seeks to Increase Service Opportunities
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana University Bloomington is launching an effort designed to connect students with service-related opportunities. IU Corps aims to boost campus-community partnerships throughout Indiana and the U.S.
The university says IU Corps will create a network to encourage a broader culture of service and volunteerism. Organizations and agencies will be able to use the network when looking to partner with IU classes or faculty.
"IU students already volunteer huge amounts of their time," said Lauren Robel, provost and executive vice president of IU Bloomington. "My hope is that IU Corps makes opportunities for community engagement more visible so that every student can graduate from IU Bloomington having taken part in some type of service — whether it’s a one-time volunteer activity, an alternative spring break trip or years of intensely focused community-based service or research.
IU says, over the past eight years, IU students have given more than 300,000 hours of work through service-learning classes alone. IU Corps will be led by Cassi Winslow-Edmonson, associate director of strategic planning at IU. She says every student can be part of IU Corps.
"As participants in IU Corps, students can apply classroom lessons to real-world challenges while learning so much from nonprofit professionals and community leaders, and IU faculty and staff," Winslow-Edmonson said. "In the process, I hope more students will develop a sense of civic responsibility and feel a real desire to make a difference in the world."
The university will hold a public kickoff of IU Corp March 1 in Franklin Hall on the Bloomington campus. You can learn more about IU Corps by clicking here.