Cornell University
EN-13: Community Service

Cornell provides a number of opportunities for employees to participate in community service, ranging from departmental team building activities (e.g. cooking for local food shelters, volunteering at local community centers) to large-scale fundraising campaigns (e.g. Cornell University's initiatives account for a full 40% of United Way of Tompkins County's annual campaign). Many Cornell employees volunteer within Ithaca’s rich non-profit community as members or on non-profit boards. Public service is central to Cornell's mission, and our partnerships with the local community are widespread and celebrated, including via an annual Town-Gown Awards ceremony (http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2018/12/eighth-annual-togo-awards-celebrate-community-engagement). Cornell offers employees paid-time for volunteering for major campus events (e.g. Move-in Days, Dump & Run, Slope Day, Commencement). Employees are also eligible to apply for a number of Engaged Cornell grants funding public service initiatives: https://engaged.cornell.edu/grants/faculty-staff-funding/#grantstesting

Cornell is the land-grant institution in New York state, Cornell has a special responsibility — unique among the Ivy League — for research and public engagement. Cornell is a university community committed to improving the quality of life in New York state, the nation and the world.

In 2020, Cornell re-certified as to receive the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, an elective designation that indicates institutional commitment to community engagement by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The classification has been the leading framework for institutional assessment and recognition of community engagement in U.S. higher education. Cornell received its existing certification during the 2010 cycle. A listing of the institutions that currently hold the Classification endorsement can be found here: https://carnegieelectiveclassifications.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Current-Classified-Institutions_Carnegie-Elective-Classification-for-Community-Engagement.pdf

Cornell University offers a thousands of community service opportunities for students, including over 120+ student organizations focused on public service, student programs offered by the university, pre-orientation service trips, alternative spring breaks, PreK-12 outreach programs, language & interpreter programs, Greek Life community service, service-learning courses, prison education programs, and many more. Cornell's Public Service Center (https://psc.cornell.edu/) serves as a centralized hub for student volunteers searching for one-time and on-going service opportunities, and Engaged Cornell (The Office of Engagement Initiatives) advances the university's mission through community-engaged learning. Cornell has over 120 student organizations focused on community service, fundraising, consulting services, mentorship, and more, dedicated to our local, regional, and global community. Students can participate in events like "Into the Streets" where 1000+ students volunteer thousands of hours around Ithaca during one day in the fall semester. Students can also raise and train service dogs, including having puppies live with them in residential communities, attend classes, etc. Students can participate in week-long, overnight service trips including "Alternative Spring Breaks" and POST (Pre-Orientation Service Trips), which involve over 100 students in each program. Cornell students also actively participate in student organizations or project teams focused on community consulting, which offer value and service to the local community (but which students may not consider "volunteering" when completing surveys). Also, approximately 1/3 of Cornell's undergraduate students are members of a fraternity or sorority, which in addition to hosting their own fundraisers (walkathons, etc.) and community service events, also participate in university-sponsored Public Service events like Into the Streets.

Engaged Cornell oversees Cornell's list of over 280 community-engaged learning courses, where students go beyond the classroom to connect theory and practice. They collaborate with communities — in Ithaca and around the globe — to design, implement and evaluate real solutions to real problems. These rigorous courses are as dynamic as their fields of study and challenge students to grow as global citizens. Here's a list of current courses: https://engaged.cornell.edu/courses/

Students are also eligible to pursue certificates in Engaged Leadership, which focus on community-engaged service, learning, and reflection. These certificates are noted on student transcripts. https://engaged.cornell.edu/program/certificate-in-engaged-leadership/

Many students are part of "The Cornell Commitment," which includes scholar programs supporting students who embody academic excellence, work and service, inquiry and discovery, and leadership and learning. These programs have minimum community service requirements that students must complete throughout the year: https://commitment.cornell.edu/

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMS:
Agriculture and Life Science International Programs
AguaClara
Ask an Astronomer
Bronfenbrenner Center for Translation Research
Center for Global Health
Center for the Study of Inequality
Center for Transformative Action
Community and Rural Development Institute
Community Learning and Service Partnership
Cornell AgriTech
Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability
Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide
Cornell Center for Materials Research
Cornell Center for Women, Justice, Economy & Technology
Cornell Cooperative Extension
The Cornell Energy Institute
Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions
Cornell Institute for Healthy Futures
Cornell Institute for Public Affairs
Cornell in Washington
Cornell Prison Education Program
Cornell Tech
Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station
Cornell University Hospital for Animals
Farmworker Legal Assistance
Global Gender Justice Clinic
Global Health Program
Housing & Residential Life
Institute for African Development
Institute for the Social Sciences
Institute for Workplace Studies
ILR International Programs
K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability
Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies
Migration and Human Rights Program
Northeast Regional Climate Center
Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives
Office of Community Relations
Opportunities for Grades K-12 Students
Pre-K to 12 Outreach
Polson Institute for Global Development
Public Service Center
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
Teaching K-12
Union Leadership Institute
Upward Bound
Urban Semester
Worker Institute

STUDENT PROGRAMS: https://psc.cornell.edu/students/student-programs
Alternative Breaks
The Andrew Goodman Foundation
Art Beyond Cornell
Community Partnership Funding Board (CPFB)
Cornell Deaf Awareness Program (CUDAP)
Cornell Elderly Partnership (CEP)
Cornell Students for Hunger Relief
Cross-Cultural Adoptee Mentorship Program (C-CAMP)
Global Citizenship and Sustainability Program
Into the Streets
Language Expansion Program (LEP)
Patient Care Advocacy Team (PCAT)
Public Service Center Scholars
Students Against the Sexual Solicitation of Youth (SASSY)
Translator Interpreter Program Board (TIP)

PREK-12 OUTREACH PROGRAMS
Afterschool Language and Culture Program, a program of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies
Big Red Buddies
Compass at Cornell
Early College Awareness (ECA)
Encouraging Young Engineers & Scientists (EYES)
GRASSHOPR (Graduate Student School Outreach Program)
Raising Education Attainment Challenge (REACH)
SOS For Education (Students Onto Scholars)
Science and Technology Entry Program (STEP)
TST BOCES Career Skills at Cornell
Upward Bound
Youth Outreach Undergraduates Reshaping Success (YOURS)
21st Century CLC Afterschool Program
K-12 Initiative (Cornell Tech)
K-12 Programs

LANGUAGE & INTERPRETER PROGRAMS
Language Expansion Program (LEP)
Translator-Interpreter Program (TIP)

Many student organizations host large-scale community service events, like Relay-for-Life, which engage thousands of students each year. Greek Life hosts large-scale community service events each semester including, "Greeks Give Back" (formerly "Day of Demeter"), which engages members from every Greek chapter on campus. The Johnson Museum of Art hosts an annual "Art & Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon at Cornell" for students are asked to write entries, footnote, translations, add images, look up information, etc. to add content to wikipedia or create pages on overlooked female artists, writers, performers and other notable women (cis-, transgender, or non-binary). Cornell Athletes also participate in community service, often as teams, including by volunteering hours of manual labor to local Tompkins County residents during Cornell's United Way Campaign.

Many courses, including Intro to Oceanography (with over 1000 students), have students to write letters to local, state, and federal leaders to ask for action on climate change, environmental justice, and more.

The Community Learning and Service Partnership program (CLASP) is a mutual learning opportunity for Cornell employees and students to work together in learning partnerships. Employees can set personal learning goals for the semester, such as learning basic computer skills, English language learning, and more. Cornell students (and interested staff) enroll in one of the courses in Adult, Community and Leadership Learning taught each semester. For the fieldwork component of the courses, students are paired with an adult CLASP participant in a Learning Partnership.

The Cornell Law School has a Public Service Challenge to recognize law students who devote time to public service activities. Students who complete 25 or more pro bono hours each year will receive a Certificate. Law students often offer free legal services to residents in Tompkins County and beyond, including free will preparation for elderly residents, free help for low-income community members to prepare their tax returns (VITA), teaching law classes to prisoners (Cornell Prison Education Program), performing research (The Avon Global Center for Women and Justice), working with immigration attorneys to research legal problems faced by refugees, prepare via applications, and appear denied applications (Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project), and much more.

Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine offers numerous outreach services and programs that impact the Ithaca community and beyond, including Pedals for PEets, Cornell Companions, Southside Community Clinic (free walk-in clinic open twice per month run by veterinary students and supervised by faculty and local veterinarians), offering free spay and neuter clinics around the county, and running the Small Animal Community Practice: https://www.vet.cornell.edu/hospitals/small-animal-community-practice

STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS: https://cornell.campusgroups.com/club_signup
Search for 120+ student orgs focused on public service

Data was collected from Cornell's Public Service Center, Cornell Commitment Office, Office of Engagement Initiatives, student organizations self-reports, and university departments. Additionally, data was pulled from the 2018 Senior Survey, which indicated that 40% of students *routinely* volunteered while on campus, and public service played a central role in 12% of students' lives while at Cornell.