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Learning by Giving Back!

  • strivetothrivenu
  • Nov 28, 2017
  • 3 min read

As a class, we have been excited to get into the grant application and selection process from the beginning. The idea of making a real difference in our community and experience this unique opportunity has been a thrill. With diligence and humility, we put a lot of time into the beginning of the semester preparing to take on this task with knowledge of our community’s current way of life, and this grant’s potential to benefit the city of Lincoln. Past Strive to Thrive Lincoln students have said that they felt one powerful way we could learn more about the nonprofits around us was through hands-on community service. After listening to the students who came before us, we decided to each participate in a volunteer project, and give back to our city in more ways than one.

Strive to Thrive Lincoln’s Service Project Coordination task group teamed up with the UNL Center for Civic Engagement to select and coordinate 6 different service projects our class would contribute to. These projects served a wide range of needs and included many different tasks - we did everything from picking up trash to staffing an arts festival or harvesting ripe peppers in a community garden. By the time we had all completed a project, we had collectively served veterans on 9/11, helped a grad student working on more sustainable farming methods, and provided volunteer work to the Food Bank of Lincoln, the Lincoln Arts Council, the Friendship Home of Lincoln, and UNL’s Huskers Helping the Homeless.

We all completed our volunteer experience, but it didn’t stop there. With the help of our Service Project Reflection task group, we got to talk to people who experienced different projects and discuss the importance of what we did. So much of the work was simple, monotonous, or seemingly insignificant upon our initial reactions to the project. Thankfully, taking the time to reflect on our work and realize the value of community service gave us a fresh dose of perspective and appreciation for the work we’d done.

Our class came to a few conclusions about service as philanthropy after our reflection. One student who picked peppers for a grad student’s research said he couldn’t believe how much they got done so fast, and while he felt like he personally didn’t make a big difference, the group provided so much help to a person who needed that work done in order to conclude his research and work towards a more sustainable future. He found our work enabled others to make more dramatic, positive change in our community, and fulfill their missions at a scale they couldn’t achieve on their own. Another classmate mowed the lawn for a war veteran. She explained how her initial reaction was confusion, believing that the veteran was fully able to mow himself and that her time could have been spent helping people who needed it more desperately. After talking to a coordinator at the event, she learned the veteran’s PTSD makes it difficult for him to do things when loud noises are involved, and that her willingness to help kept him from dealing with the stress and trauma that is involved in even the simplest tasks. We learned through stories like this that there are so many needs around us we can easily fill, including ones we may not realize at first glance. As volunteers, we hold more power than we know to provide assistance in ways we may not see necessary and support efforts that need many hands to do something incredible; this is why it’s so important to be present in our community and eager to join the continuous efforts to do good around us.

Lastly, the experience gave us a concrete example of what a nonprofit in action looks like. As we set out to fund upcoming projects in our community, the service projects gave us a richer sense of what will happen with the money we’re donating, and the confidence to understand these projects as civically engaged members of the Lincoln community. All philanthropic efforts are interwoven, and while these projects may not be helping the same organizations that we eventually select to fund, the chance for us to serve and reflect on our own impact has made us aware and excited of what else we will do together as Strive to Thrive Lincoln continues.


 
 
 

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