This year, Day of Service was held on Saturday September 12th. Day of Service is run by the Service Learning Office. Students volunteer to spend the day learning about service projects and ways to get involved on campus as well as in the surrounding community. Students were expected to attend the event from 8am to 4pm. Students were grouped into four different teams – red, blue, green, and purple. Throughout the day, each group traveled from one planned destination to the next. At each destination there was either a service activity to complete or a service learning informative session.

The first destination that my group attended included both an activity and an informative

session. We learned about Covenant House in Atlantic City and all the ways to mentor and socialize with the individuals who reside there. Then we learned about how Campus Kitchen prepares food on Mondays at Atlantic High School Commercial Kitchen and then distributes it to families in need who live transitionally in local hotels. Finally we ended with an activity involving Books Without Borders where we packaged up donated books to send to libraries in Africa.

At our second destination we learned about volunteer opportunities in our community and had in depth debates about controversial topics. We learned about The Petey Greene Foundation Tutors – who tutor in education programs in prisons and jails. Tutors provide individualized assistance and model helpful study habits to prisoners – transportation is available to and from the prisons. At this station we had the chance to register to vote. We also were asked to take a poll on whether we thought The Death Penalty should be illegal and if we thought police had the right to search our phone and personal belongings after being arrested. After we polled our opinions we had a group discussion about our answers which fostered public speaking and comfortability with peers.

Finally we learned about The Green Dot program at Stockton which is run by the Wellness Center. The Green Dot program raises awareness to make the campus safer.

Everyone should do say of service! It’s a fun and easy way for students to get acquainted with the service learning office and what they do. Students will leave Day of Service with loads of information that will help them get involved at Stockton and in the community.