Making Service Learning Fun

UWEC students MUST do volunteer work, so here's a few of the coolest ways students have fulfilled that requirement. ...

•  A teddy bear drive that made stuffed animals available to children who come to the hospital for a sexual assault examination (Sacred Heart Hospital – Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners)

•  Assisting low-income individuals with tax preparation (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance)

•  Several families in Nicaragua didn’t have access to a school during the rainy season, so the service project raised money for a bridge, which is currently built

•  Producing a comprehensive brochure on sculptures throughout Eau Claire

•  The study of sea turtles on hotel beaches in Greece

•  Student found underground rivers by studying a cave (Wind Cave National Park)

•  Assisting children with autism at the AACT (Autism Awareness, Care, and Training) in Ghana, where the disease has a strong social stigma

•  Assisting an Optometrist during their examinations, providing service in some cases to those that are unable to pay (Advanced Eyecare Center)

•  Providing support to a native Spanish speaker from Veracruz, Mexico in his transition to an American high school (Altoona High School ESL)

•  Designing a map for the city of Eau Claire as a resource for ex-offenders, which included locations and contact information for food, clothing, jobs, and health services in the Chippewa Valley (Americorps*VISTA)

•  Found and directed a group of artists to create a body of  work that describes the 30 universal human rights each of us are entitled to, then displayed the project on campus later that school year (Amnesty International)

•  Using data attained by GPS, they made a distance and elevation map of a cross country track, which hadn’t currently been mapped (Arcadia School District)

•  Replacing the presently non-functional Bugs of Bandelier display case with a display of the common insects of the area, for educational use by the public and the park staff (Bandelier National Monument/Wildlife)

•  Helping raise and care for native butterflies, acting as a tour guide in the butterfly house, and maintaining the butterfly house (Beaver Creek Reserve)

•  Founded a student organization entitled Students Against Eating Disorders (SAED) on the UWEC campus, which in turn organized Eating Disorder Awareness Week

•  Running activities for a portion of the 600 fifth and sixth graders who come from all over Wisconsin for the Annual Wisconsin Groundwater Festival (Center for Watershed Science & Education)

•  Helping households change their fire addresses, so when they call into 911, the police know exactly where to go (City of Arcadia)

•  Inspecting boats for dangerous weeds such as milfoil, and charging the launch fee (City of Shell Lake Invasive Species Program)

•  A group of students created a silent movie to spread awareness for and encourage healthy food choices for college students (Communication & Journalism Department)