Upcoming Service Opportunities

by: Vanessa Ingram

Here are some volunteer opportunities for you to get involved in the community. For information on these programs and more, please visit the CCASL house and request information on these programs and more.

CCASL is well known throughout the Spokane community and is in direct contact with many resources and volunteer opportunities that enrich the Spokane community and provide Gonzaga students with tools they can use to make a difference by giving time and effort to others. Listed on this page are just a few of the volunteer opportunities that CCASL currently has listed for anyone who is interested:

October 29- November 16, 2012

The Giving Tree is an event that provides the Gonzaga community with a special opportunity to sponsor a child this holiday season. This is a clothing and toy drive to sponsor mentees from Campus Kids and Connections as well as their siblings during the holiday. Visit Crosby Monday-Friday between 10am-3pm to pick up a tag and sponsor a child this holiday season.

For more information contact Bailley Wootton at 509-313-6821

October 31, 2012 Boys & Girls Club of Spokane County, Northtown Clubhouse Volunteers will help with the "Trunk-or-Treat" event, which offers a safe alternative on Halloween for over 1,000 kids. Different volunteer opportunities include leading carnival games, leading children during the costume parade, greeting guests and ushering children across the street in the form of crossing guards. Interested student should contact Jason Anderson at 509-489-0741 or janderson@bgcspokanecounty.org

November 10-11, 2012

 Special Olympics Washington (SOWA)

 Volunteers are needed on November 10 from 12:30-6:40pm, and November 11 from 9am-12pm. Volunteers are needed to help Special Olympics athletes on the bowling lanes, and transfer the scores from the computer to the score sheets for each game. Interested students should contact Jill Ives at 509-460-1371 or jives@sowa.org .

Male Leaders in CCASL

By: Vanessa Ingram

An eleven year old boy is addicted to pain killers and living in a dilapidated house along with several other youths who are forever trapped in an endless cycle of drugs and poverty.

When witnessing a situation like this, we as human beings cannot help but ask ourselves, what can I do to make a difference? Jeb Berg asked himself this same question when he attended a CCASL retreat during his junior year at Gonzaga University.

“I couldn’t unsee it, I couldn’t unknow, and I couldn’t unlearn that experience.”  He said as he described his life changing experience with CCASL. Berg had previously pursued a business degree and hoped to possibly acquire a job on Wall Street.

But since that retreat, Berg has devoted his life to his fellow man by serving his community and now works as the community outreach coordinator at CCASL.

For the past 19 years, CCASL has been the center of community involvement and outreach within Gonzaga University by providing service-learning opportunities, managing career volunteer programs, and referring students to other volunteer programs off campus.

Through CCASL, not only do students have the opportunity to make a difference through community service, but they are also given various leadership skills and challenges that have a great impact on who they are.  “It has really impacted me a lot…” said Alicia Hungerford, a sophomore who is serving her second year at CCASL.

Although CCASL has experienced a large amount of participation from the Gonzaga student body over the years, there is a scarce number of male participants in each program.

As a result, CCASL is always looking for male participants for volunteers, especially in mentoring programs where young boys are in need of positive male role-models.

After expressing his first experience with CCASL, Berg also gave his opinion as to why there is such low male participation in CCASL programs. “They try to avoid situations where they will be uncomfortable or seem uncool, but what they don’t realize is that it is in that uncomfortable situation where they begin to grow as a person.”

Jeb urges male students to consider joining any of these programs because it is a life changing experience that they will not regret. “CCASL is a place where transformation happens”, he continued.

The calling of service...

By: Angie Funnell 

“Tell me and I'll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I'll understand” --Chinese Proverb

 

The Center for Community Action and Service Learning (CCASL) reflects the values of community, hearth, justice, respect, transformation, and creativity. “Service requires people. Students and staff lead the programs, working with 150 community partners and volunteers. CCASL is run 50 percent by grants, donations and fund raising, and the university underwrites the rest,” said Director Sima Thorpe, who is fulfilled by sharing her commitment to social justice.

“Today our prime educational objective must be to form men-and-women-for-others; men and women who will live not for themselves but for God and his Christ - for the God-man who lived and died for all the world; men and women who cannot even conceive of love of God which does not include love for the least of their neighbors; men and women completely convinced that love of God which does not issue in justice for others is a farce.”  --Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Superior General of the Society of Jesus 1973, Valencia, Spain
 

Governed by a holistic Jesuit education, Gonzaga University provides students with the opportunity to explore the realm of service and decipher what service means to them. Assistant Director of University Ministry and Gonzaga Alumni, Michelle Wheatley said, “In terms of the Catholic Church’s view on service, I was always raised to believe that service isn’t something that we do but something that we are, by nature, because of our identity. God’s love inherently contains a mission in it—a mission to love our neighbor, and especially those who are least accounted for in our society.” 

Gonzaga students fulfill their calling to be the men and woman for others by getting involved with mentoring and co-curricular programs. Senior Tiffani Gonzales volunteers her time between CCASL's mentoring program Campus Kids, as well as dedicates her time at the St. Margaret's Day Care. Tiffani said, “For me, service places me in the position that we are brothers and sisters in this world, and that we are called to serve each other. We are the body of Christ, so service is an apparent reminder that we are working as a community to find a universal goal.” Tiffani address the significance of building relationships through the mentoring programs offered through CCASL. From a college student’s perspective, Tiffani explained, “We often get caught up in the rapture of the college life. Being around kids helps center me on the humility that we forget to exude or portray. It’s an important part of the human understanding. You forget to laugh, play, and be jovial.”
 

Coordinator of the CCASL mentoring programs, Zach Reuter said, “A really important piece about service that I learned over my undergraduate career is that the most effective service is not for others, it is with others. Service is not a job where you punch in and punch out, it should ideally be a time where you look forward to meeting a need or bridging a gap with the people who have called for that service.” Zach highlights the notion of Jesuit service- to be the men and woman for others. Zach said, “We are there to help them feel socially accepted, boost self-esteem, be an ear to listen, and a guide towards success. We may never see the benefit of the couple of hours a week we spend with these students but it may actually pay huge dividends down the road. Taking an honest interest in the people you serve with, sharing in their struggle (and letting them share in yours), shows that you care far more than helping a child with their homework as you constantly check the clock." Zach continued to share that he thought service was an enormous piece of Gonzaga's identity. 

Students desire to be the change they wish see in the world. The Center for Community Action & Service Learning provides Zags with a myriad of opportunities to embrace the social change that occurs when students are involved. For seniors, there are a myriad of post-grad opportunities as well, for more information contact: Molly Ayers at ayers@gonzaga.edu.

Visit the CCASL Facebook page to be more involved and website to check out more opportunities for you to be of service!!