community service

More than 1,000 Washington University in St. Louis students, faculty and staff are taking part in Service First Saturday, Sept. 1. This community service event, held annually on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, is an opportunity for new students to volunteer with area public schools.

Post-9/11 disabled veterans furthered their education, improved employment prospects and continued to serve their community through participating in The Mission Continues’ Fellowship Program finds a new study by the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. The Mission Continues is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to enable every returning veteran to serve again as a citizen leader. This study is one of the first to focus on the health and psychosocial outcomes of disabled veterans after providing civic service, defined as formal volunteering in a structured program, to nonprofits all across the country.

Each One Teach One, the university’s signature tutoring initiative that connects WUSTL tutors with area elementary and high school students, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month.

Nominations are being accepted through Friday, Feb. 5, for the 2010 Gerry and Bob Virgil Ethic of Service Award.

The 2007 Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition (SEIC) will kickoff its second year on Thursday, September 28 at 5:30 p.m. The celebration will take place on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in Uncas A. Whitaker Hall, and will feature a presentation by Timothy Hanser, vice-president of community outreach and director of Cardinals Care, the team’s community foundation. The SEIC is helping people in St. Louis cause social change. It provides funding and education for social entrepreneurs who develop solutions that solve social issues. Awards totaling more than $100,000 are available to winners under a variety of categories.

Professor Emeritus James W. Davis is stepping down as director of the institute, which was launched last year.

Despite their money-grubbing reputation, MBA students have more than their future paychecks on their minds. Through both school and student-driven initiatives, the Olin School of Business continues to provide ample proof that it fosters community responsibility in its students. In addition to the array of activities the business school is organizing to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, business school students are working to strengthen the St. Louis community as well. On Saturday, Sept. 10, current MBA students, alumni, faculty and staff from the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis are teaming up for the first annual Olin Serves Day.

With the first wave of baby boomers preparing for retirement, the 2005 White House Conference on Aging to be held this fall in Washington, D.C., will be an important opportunity to assess aging in America and improve the lives of older Americans. “The demographic revolution is upon us, and there is widespread agreement that we need to do something differently regarding older adults,” says Nancy Morrow-Howell, Ph.D., productive aging expert and the Ralph and Muriel Pumphrey Professor of Social Work in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. “The U.S. government and other service agencies need to expand and create institutions that make volunteering a natural part of later life,” she says.

Richard A. GephardtEncouraging people to become involved in public service will be the goal of the newly established Richard A. Gephardt Institute for Public Service at Washington University in St. Louis. Named in honor of the two-time presidential candidate and longtime Missouri congressman, the non-partisan, university-wide institute be directed by James W. Davis, WUSTL professor of political science.