Wednesday afternoon, local volunteer and non-profit organizations encircled 29 Park Place for the annual community engagement fair.
Organizations encouraged students to participate in activities outside of campus to develop hands-on experiences.
Raya Abner, community engagement manager with the Southeast Ohio food bank, emphasized the importance of exploring opportunities the Athens region possesses.
“In Athens, we have so many different non-profits and they are such a central part of town and getting to know what the culture is like here,” Abner said. “It’s just a way to get some skills-based opportunities.”
Abner was in search of student volunteers and participants for a division of Hocking Athens Perry Community Action (HAPCAP).
“We get a lot of our most impactful work done because of how important our volunteers are,” she said. “We wouldn’t be able to feed as many people as we do without volunteers.”
Courtney Lefebvre Little, assistant director of the center for campus and community engagement, organized the fair and expressed why it is crucial for students to explore beyond OU’s campus.
“It also gets them outside of the classroom, outside of campus and into our community a little bit more and exposed to Appalachia more broadly,” she said. “I think the campus is sometimes a bubble and if students leave here never getting past Court Street, we haven’t done our job right.”
Shannon Stewart, director of the AmeriCorps program at Rural Action, said the engagement fair was helpful when she was a student, and she hopes others have a similar experience.
“When I came here to school, I wasn't even from very far away, but I didn't necessarily know much about Athens as a community ... we didn't come this direction very much,” Stewart said. “Opportunities like this that were walkable for a young student were a great way for me to understand how I could learn more about the community.”
Rural Action is a member-based non-profit organization based in Appalachian Ohio since 1991. Stewart said there are countless options awaiting students at Rural Action.
“We have volunteering opportunities throughout the year, especially in the good weather,” Stewart said. “We do tree plantings. We have litter pickups and sometimes harvesting or distribution of food.”
Rural Action hosts an AmeriCorps program, similar to the Peace Corps except the program occurs in the U.S. Rural Action’s AmeriCorps members participate in conservation, environmental education and other studies connected to sustainability.
Lefebvre Little said students can seek distinct opportunities through these local organizations and what can seem like a simple volunteer job can open a door of endless possibilities.
“We have a lot of these organizations that are community work-study host sites for eligible students who qualify for the federal work-study programs -- we can create paid internships with public sector organizations for them,” Lefebvre Little said.
As well as potential internship or research opportunities these non-profit volunteer organizations present students with a glimpse of the real world.
“There’s all kinds of great organizations,” Lefebvre Little said. “If you’re having difficulty connecting to something on campus, look at the greater Athens community and there are a lot of people who are really eager to support students.”
