Service
Reaching out and changing lives.
Last year, William & Mary students volunteered 323,000 hours of service in the greater Williamsburg area. Calculated at minimum wage, that adds up to $1.6 million. But the real value of their work is immeasurable, both for the Williamsburg community and the student volunteers themselves.
The Office of Community Engagement has active partnerships with over 90 local non-profit agencies and schools. Here are just a few examples of local student outreach projects:
- 300 students build and repair homes for local, low-income residents each year through Housing Partnerships, Inc.
- 200 students tutor at 14 local schools through College Partnership for Kids, contributing 400 hours of community service each week and 10,000 hours each academic year
- 70 students volunteer as mentors with Big Brothers Big Sisters
- 75 students volunteer each semester at Sentara Williamsburg Community Hospital
- 87 students tutor clients of the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Program
- Dozens of W&M students and professors contribute to the revitalization of nearby Petersburg, Virginia through the ground-breaking Phoenix Project
With the help of student leaders, W&M has organized 15 international service trips each year to provide AIDS education in Tanzania, build homes in Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua, offer medical relief in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and volunteer at schools in South Africa.
W&M offers the most international service trips of the approximately 120 schools that are members of the nonprofit organization Breakaway, whose mission is to train, assist and connect campuses and communities in promoting quality alternative break programs.
To learn more, read A Tradition of Service: A Student Vision for Civic Engagement (pdf) and find out how you can get involved at the Office of Community Engagement.