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Individual Service Projects
Every year, each scholar chooses an organization to partner with and serve on a regular basis. This project establishes relationships with the community, and through it, we strive to make a meaningful contribution to the organization's cause, usually serving on a weekly basis on the honor system. At the end of every school year, we participate in a Service Forum, where we display boards offering information about each of our projects and the impact that we made. Faculty, staff and our service co-workers are invited to learn about our efforts and speak to us about them.
Agencies that we have worked with include:
- Communities in Schools
- University United Methodist Church
- St. Luke's Catholic Church
- Stand and Deliver Program
- San Antonio Public Library
- Christian Senior Services
- Saint Anthony Claret Catholic Church
- The San Antonio Humane Society
- Dance Therapy
- The San Antonio Children's Shelter
- Habitat for Humanity
- StMU Family Resource Learning Center
- Seton Homes
- Meals-On-Wheels
- Alcoholics Anonymous Clubhouse 12
- St. Pius X Catholic School Library
- StMU Service Learning Center
- Big Brother, Big Sister
- Family Violence Prevention Center
Group Service Projects
As a group, we also engage in a year-long initiative, partnering with a service organization on a student-led, faculty-advised project. We form two to three project groups each year and in past years have worked with:
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance
This program aims to prepare income tax returns free of charge for low-income families in our community. Each Saturday from January to April, we open the St. Mary’s University Center for Legal and Social Justice to our clients; in 2010, the money returning back to our surrounding community through refunds totaled $1.3 million. Our group of scholars, advised by Dr. Madison, re-wrote volunteer training program and assisted with several training dates in January. We were also in charge of recruiting volunteers, advertising within the community for VITA services, and served as the communication line for volunteers.
"The Greehey Scholars have made a phenomenal impact on the VITA program. Scholars have taken a leadership role in recruiting volunteers for the program, and over the last three years, have been instrumental in doubling the number of active volunteers, in developing a customized volunteer training curriculum designed to meet the needs of our clients, and have contributed many hours to preparing returns and counseling clients during the tax season."
Tom Madison, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair of Accounting, Bill Greehey School of Business
Habitat for Humanity: St. Mary's University Chapter
After many years without an active chapter on campus, the Greehey Scholars took the initiative of re-establishing the Habitat for Humanity StMU chapter, with support from faculty advisors Krystina Irvin and Shelly Underwood. After completing the process of becoming a Registered Student Organization, we recruited members and began organizing build-days and Hab-i-tours to fully immerse the chapter into the organization. We were also able to start fundraising for Habitat and our chapter t-shirts.
"The leadership and vision provided by the Greehey Scholars has been integral in not only establishing the Habitat for Humanity chapter on campus, but also in ensuring its constant renewal and consistency in its mission. These students are sincerely passionate about incorporating social responsibility into their personal as well as professional lives, and extending that message to the rest of the university community."
Krystina Irvin
Service and Volunteer Coordinator, Service Learning Center
Ronald McDonald House
The Ronald McDonald House service initiative has been made a group service option for scholars, after a few years of being a successful and popular elective activity. The project consists of serving a home-cooked meal to families at the House who have relatives that are in the hospital. The group of scholars is in charge of buying supplies, creating flyers, cooking at the House and spends the evening interacting with the families. With 4 meals to prepare throughout the semester, the Ronald McDonald House group will keep busy coming up with great meal and entertainment ideas for the families who certainly give the scholars incredible examples of strength, love, courage and faith.
Service Immersion
Over the Fall 2010 Mid-Semester Break, we embarked on a 5 day service immersion trip to the small fishing village of Sarteneja, Belize. Four teams of scholars presented seminars and workshops to members of budding community organizations in order to address business topics, including: marketing, leadership and ethics, strategic planning and budgeting. In addition, we spoke with high school students to encourage them in their studies, visited Mayan ruins and the local Nature Reserve and truly became a part of our Homestay families.
Our discussions with the Sartenejan community fostered learning and openness to new ideas, strategies and ways of planning in order to aid their work in making Sarteneja a sustainable tourist destination, while remaining faithful to their traditionally rich and beautiful culture. We fell in love with the wonderfully generous and caring people who welcomed us so warmly.
We look forward to continue providing technical and consulting assistance to the people of Sarteneja throughout this year, as well as to planning return trips to their village. To quote a prevalent national slogan, our trip was simply "UnBELIZEable!"
