Brandeis University
PAE-22: Community Service Participation

A best estimate of the total number of Brandeis students who volunteered at some point during the 2011-2012 is obtained by the number of Community Service Wavers completed last year. Unfortunately not all students volunteer in structured programs such as the Waltham Group, Experiential Learning or in University days of service so this number is actually lower than the reality of number of students volunteered. 44% of seniors reported having participated in community service at some point during their Brandeis experience. (I don't have access to this data to verify the 44%) Part of the success of Brandeis’s community service initiatives is due to their institutionalization. The Waltham Group, our premier community service organization, enjoys the support and constant guidance of staff members. We have a unique set up in which the coordinators from 18 different programs meet weekly to discuss best practices and brainstorm solutions to problems we encounter. Our experiential-community engaged learning program is also strong, with impressive staff support and engaging faculty. There are numerous community service clubs on campus at Brandeis including English Language Learners, Brandeis Medical Brigades, Federal International Medical Relief of Children, Students Teaching Students, Waltham Group among many others. Service is woven into the core of Brandeis as there are service projects as part of Orientation, Senior Week, class year experiences, Living and Learning Residence Life Communities, in addition to projects completed by our alumni. An annual event, Celebration of Service is hosted each year to celebrate our community's invest in community service work. Brandeis applied and obtained the President's Community Service Honor Roll this year. Multiple student recruitment nights are offered each semester in addition to an annual Community Service Fair with over 25 local non-profits attending to recruit Brandeis student volunteers. This number came out to be 35,620 hours for one year’s time. Divided between the 3,296 undergraduate students at Brandeis, this came out to 10.807 hours on average per student per year. When multiplied by 0.3 (as instructed by STARS), the final credit number is 3.24. I am happy to calculate this if you have the total number of our study body, but feel free to edit this information with the data that you have. An award program is being piloted in 2012-2013 to encourage students to log their community hours and for the institution to celebrate our mission to social justice and service.