Day of Service Deepens GW Connection with Community

At Convocation Saturday morning—the school’s official welcome to the incoming class of 2021, held in the Charles E. Smith Center—George Washington President Thomas LeBlanc urged new freshmen to seek out extra opportunities to learn and serve, and to take advantage of the resources available to them as GW students.

To a laughing chorus of “awws,” he added that the class of 2021 would “always have a special place in [his] heart” as his presidency’s first class of GW freshmen.

“Your journey is my journey,” he said.

To that end, Dr. LeBlanc joined volunteers at several sites over the course of the day, pruning sweet potato plants at Francis-Stevens and hauling textbooks at McKinley.

“Freshman Day of Service is always a wonderful gathering among students and an introduction to the community and our neighbors,” said Amy Cohen, executive director of the Nashman Center. “This year, the day takes on an even greater meaning and urgency. We gather together not only to serve with D.C. and our surrounding community, but also to begin to build the connections and understanding that will help us address recent natural disasters, increasing civic instability and ongoing racism and economic disparities.”

Many students volunteering on Saturday had been personally affected by the seemingly endless series of natural disasters that have recently affected the U.S. Francis-Stevens site leader Mia Prado, a Florida native, said her family was preparing to ride out Hurricane Irma.

“We’re used to hurricanes in Florida,” she said, grimacing. “But I’m glad I’m here.”

At Francis-Stevens alone, Ms. Prado, Ms. Carl, Ms. Martindale and their fellow volunteers left behind a new irrigation ditch, pruned vegetable beds, painted benches and a newly mulched garden that would still be accessible in the rain. (And a few safe, hardworking worms: “Hello, friend,” Ms. Prado said, rescuing one from the sharp edges of the volunteers’ shovels.)

Current GW students weren’t the only ones at work. Alumna Megan Hanley, B.A. ’06, is now assistant principal at School Without Walls. For her, as for Ms. Thomson, service is an essential way to get students in touch with the community outside the college “bubble.”

 “There is a beautiful history and a rich community in D.C.,” she said. “Living here, you have so much at your fingertips—not just prestigious internships or working close to the government, although that’s cool, too, but the opportunity to see and connect with this incredible, thriving city.”