Full steam ahead for Freshman Service Experience planners

BY MIKE UNGER

American University students’ commitment to community service often begins before they have even set foot inside a classroom. For the past 14 years, thousands of incoming freshmen have arrived on campus a week before their collegiate careers officially began to participate in the Freshman Service Experience (FSE), lending their time, bodies, and minds to needy people and organizations scattered throughout their new hometown.

Preparations for this year’s FSE, scheduled for Aug. 22–25, are in full swing, being carried out by a new director of community service and six, first-time student coordinators. They’re charged with planning every aspect of the weeklong event that places students in about 60 sites around Washington.

“We want them to learn that every community has assets and things going for it,” said Marcy Campos, director of community service. “We want to make sure that besides the three full days of service they learn something about the neighborhood. We want to add some context. A lot of students come in with [some] negative assumptions of D.C. We want them to know that in every neighborhood there are a lot of good things going on.”

Each of Campos’s six student coordinators have been involved with FSE previously as either a participant or site leader—or both. But none have spearheaded the planning part of the process before. The event brings 500 to 600 freshmen and 90 student leaders to the city to perform more than 1,200 hours of service. It’s a massive task, but one they are embracing with eagerness, if not experience.

“It’s been tough, but at the same time, it’s also been freeing,” said Dave Schneider ’07. “There are no bruised feelings if something’s changed. It’s more of a blessing than it is a curse.”

Wide vanities of service opportunities are available, ranging from the personal (working with senior citizens, the homeless) to the physical (landscaping or refurbishing a school or community center). This year, FSE organizers are aiming to incorporate more Washington specificity into the program.

“[We’re] working on starting up a neighborhood initiative where the participants in the neighborhoods aren’t just going to be doing service,” Schneider said. “At selected sites they meet with parents, teachers, students, a local community organizer, or maybe they just go have lunch at a local establishment. They’ll understand more about the environment they’re in, and we’re not just injecting them into the city and bringing them back into Northwest.     

Kenton Kerns ’07 is working on securing sites for AU’s army of volunteers. The list of confirmed partners includes the American Red Cross, National Breast Cancer Coalition, Friends of the National Zoo, schools throughout the District, and the site of his service in 2003, the Ronald McDonald House, which provides shelter for the families of children undergoing medical treatment in the city.

“We make sure it’s a good representation of sites that are key to the D.C. community,” Kerns said. “The Ronald McDonald House has a playground for the siblings of the cancer patients. We cleaned the playground, remulched the entire back yard. Not only is it a great way to meet your fellow classmates, but you know that you’re really helping people in D.C.”

Jill Messinger ’06 was a leader last year.

“AU is in Northwest, and a lot of people come here and all they see is this beautiful area,” she said. “[FSE] gives them a chance to see other aspects of the city, there are so many parts of the city with so much culture, and FSE is a great way to learn about them.”

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