Mira Singhal, a first-year student studying biology at George Washington University, sat in a classroom at Edward C. Mazique Parent-Child Center Saturday afternoon, carefully sketching the outline of a tree. Singhal’s drawing, once complete, would be used as a family tree by the incoming students at Mazique to hang up photos of their family members.
“I’m really excited for the kids to see it when they return. Especially because it’s a pretty personal thing to have a family tree, and I hope it makes the classroom feel more special and homier,” Singhal said.
Singhal was one of 2,000 GW students, staff and faculty, including President Ellen M. Granberg, Dean of Students and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Colette Coleman and Jay Goff, vice provost for enrollment and student success, who volunteered their time on Saturday to local organizations during the 16th annual Convocation and Welcome Day of Service.
This year, students helped at 55 sites including D.C. area schools such as Malcolm X Elementary School and Kramer Middle School in Southeast, and Columbia Heights Education Campus in Northwest to prepare them for the start of the school year. The various projects were coordinated by the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service.
Days of Service have been an important part of GW tradition since 1995 when the university observed the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday as a time to give back to the community through service projects. In 2009, GW instituted a second annual day of service in September after President Barack Obama’s executive order declaring 9/11 as Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance.
In 2010, GW officially named the day Freshman Day of Service and encouraged all first-year students to volunteer at local organizations. That year, the university focused beyond first responders and served alongside First Lady Michelle Obama. She challenged students to perform 100,000 hours of community service during the 2009-10 academic year and in return, she would speak at GW’s 2010 Commencement.
In 2019, the day was renamed to Welcome Day of Service and the tradition continued, even during COVID with adjustments to ensure social distancing guidelines were followed to ensure students' health and safety.
The GW students serving at Mazique split up their efforts among classrooms and spent the afternoon cleaning, organizing toys and books, doing gardening and hanging signs on the walls to brighten up the space for the incoming children.
Quinn Dolan, a first-year student studying environmental science, was one of the volunteers helping prepare a classroom for the new school year. She wiped down toys, cleaned the cubbies and wrote name tags for the new children who would be using the classroom.
“It’s a good feeling knowing the students will come back to these classrooms with everything ready for them, so I’m really glad we can help with that,” Dolan said.
She appreciated that Day of Service is a chance for first-year students to get to know more of the D.C. neighborhoods through community service, as well as get acquainted with other GW students they don’t see regularly.
Joanna Destil, a senior studying business, was one of the site leaders at Mazique. She has been serving with Day of Service since she was a first-year student.
“Being able to give back to the community and make others happy is really special,” Destil said. “It’s also a great opportunity to meet other GW students. Because a lot of the volunteers are freshmen, it’s a great way for them to ask seniors for advice about the first week of classes or what it’s like to be a student at GW.”
She said she’s proud that GW students consistently dedicate their time to engaging with the community through community service work.
“Giving back is important and I’m glad to see so many others from GW here. Everyone is having a great time, making new friends while helping the community,” Destil said. “It’s really a way to build themselves up while also uplifting others.”
Students also participated in service projects at the University Student Center. In Room 310, GW Votes held a crash course for first-year students on how they can vote during November's election cycle. They even had them write out a plan of action on a postcard and encouraged them to keep it close by when the time comes for them to head to the polls.
Their service activity included writing personalized, nonpartisan letters to potential voters in swing states to encourage action. Each table took a state as students, as well as Vice Provost Goff, penned 100 handwritten notes per table sharing why it's important for people to make their voices heard on Election Day. The letters were addressed to potential voters in communities who have been historically underrepresented at the polls.
"We are here today to help bridge that gap," said senior and GW Votes Program Assistant Vidya Muthupillai.
At Malcolm X Elementary School, in readiness for classes that start Monday, the walls were freshly painted a soothing soft vanilla yellow, the lime green tiles polished to a mirror finish and the floors buffed to reflect the sunlight coming in through the windows. About 40 GW students were making the environs more welcoming for young children, using their creative skills to design colorful murals and posters for halls and bulletin boards.
“Just think about it. Two-, three- and four-year-old’s, their little, tiny feet walking around,” said Jessica Rich, a GW site leader who works at Malcolm X as a team leader on the GW Jumpstart program. “It’s a great big building to walk into. These projects are particularly important because they’ve never been here.”
Rich, a junior, majoring in human service and social justice, stood watch as first-year students Elizabeth McGillen and Brianna Graham, an environmental science major, painted calligraphic figures playing instruments in a mural outside the school’s music room.
“I am so happy doing what we are doing now,” Graham said. “Some people are going into the woods to pull up honeysuckle. This is one of the more relaxing projects.”
McGillen, an international affairs major who would like to serve at Malcolm X as a part of Jumpstart, added that volunteering is satisfying because “you’re making your own difference.”
For many students, this was not a first-time experience since community service is a requirement in high schools around the country. Sabrina Zeoli, pausing as she sketched in a letter over an archway said that at her public school in Boston she appreciated when volunteers came to the school. Now, she said, “as a college student, giving back in the way people gave to me is honestly healing my inner child.”
First-year student Link Rodriguez, a political science and international affairs major, was thinking about the hardship of the little kids moving into an unfamiliar place in a new school. “That’s going to be tough for them, and I’m glad to help the staff this school year,” Link said.
He was cutting out multicolored oval shapes to make balloons for Cameron Kopczynski’s poster that was modeled on the film, “UP."
“I thought it would be nice for the kids,” said Kopczynski, a philosophy major. “It feels good to help the community even if it is just in a small way like this.”
Lydia Ryan, a human services and social justice major, making a welcome sign, said, it’s “the easiest way to make a place feel like home” for the GW students “to become involved in the community, introduce us to being residents of D.C. and get us feeling connected to the community.”
GW Today photographers William Atkins, Lily Speredelozzi and B.L. Wilson captured images of the volunteers at three of the work sites:
