At McKinley Technology High School in Northeast Washington on Saturday afternoon, volunteers from George Washington University got to work decorating locker signs with motivational messages and created colorful posters to hang around the school.
The volunteer work was part of GW’s annual Welcome Day of Service, which brings students, faculty and staff together at local sites across the D.C. area to give back to the community ahead of the academic year.
President Ellen M. Granberg and Interim Provost John Lach joined volunteers at McKinley, sitting alongside students to help write encouraging messages for high schoolers returning to class. Some of Granberg’s messages included phrases like, “Be the reason someone smiles today,” and “You are amazing! Have a great year!”
Outside the school in D.C.’s Eckington neighborhood, a small group of GW students planted flowers near the entrance, adding a welcoming touch to the school’s exterior.
Imaan Nasir, a biomedical engineering student, said community building is important, and she highlighted a comment from Granberg’s speech during Convocation earlier in the morning that resonated with her.
“Earlier, President Granberg said something that really stuck with me. If you give back to the community you’re in, then they’ll be the one to pull you forward,” Nasir said. “So it’s really about building up the people around you.”
Nasir was one of 2,700 GW students, staff and faculty, including Granberg, Lach and Dean of Students and Vice Provost for Student Affairs Colette Coleman who volunteered their time on Saturday. A day of service has been an important tradition at GW since 1995 when the day was set to honor the holiday for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In 2009, GW instituted a second annual day of service in September after President Barack Obama’s executive order declared 9/11 as Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance.
In 2010, GW officially named the second day Freshman Day of Service and encouraged all first-year students to volunteer at local organizations. That year, First Lady Michelle Obama 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.
This year, about 2,200 students helped at 62 sites across the region at schools including McKinley Tech, historical institutions like President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home, parks and other green spaces and by prepping tools, supplies and teaching aids during sessions in the University Student Center. All of the projects were coordinated by the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service.
Ksenia Rabij, who is studying political science, said she loved volunteering while in high school, and it’s something she’s excited to continue now that she’s in college.
“In high school, I did a lot of service projects, and I think it’s good to give back to your community in small ways that you can,” Rabij said. “And if someone is going to be happier by seeing a motivational poster, I want to help.”
She also appreciated the opportunity to explore a new part of the city and bond with classmates.
“It’s a great experience to see other areas outside of Foggy Bottom and really take in the diversity of the city,” Rabij said. “Seeing a different area, meeting new classmates, you get a sense of community, too. It’s nice to know you’re giving back.”
Era Zaidi, an international business student, said giving back and volunteering has long been a core value for her.
“I grew up learning the importance of giving back and helping others,” Zaidi said. “In high school, I was involved in clubs that were all about that. It’s important to help others, that’s just an important value to have.”
While hundreds of GW volunteers fanned out from campus across the region, others filled rooms in the USC. In the Grand Ballroom, students helped Math Matters, a high-impact tutoring program between GW and D.C. Public Schools (DCPS), prep projects for the school year. Volunteers created vocabulary booklets so DCPS students can more easily digest and remember math ideas. Others cut out a domino matching game aimed to help with fractions, and another table of students made a matching game using ice cream cutouts.
“The goal is to make math fun,” said site leader and Math Matters Program Manager Abimbola Ogundare.
Elsewhere in USC, a group of students stuffed and addressed envelopes for Free Minds Book Club, a nonprofit that uses books, creative writing and peer support to help incarcerated and formerly incarcerated youth. In the Continental Ballroom, volunteers painted inspirational messages on rocks for the Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a D.C. emergency shelter for children. Coleman, the vice provost for student affairs, spent time at many of the USC locations Saturday.
Nearly 50 GW volunteers headed to The Lincoln Cottage on the grounds of the Old Soldiers Home in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest Washington. The cottage is where President Abraham Lincoln spent time during the summer months to escape the heat and swamp fevers surrounding the White House in the 19th century.
A relatively unknown destination among the many monuments and historical sites in the nation’s capital, the Lincoln Cottage is located on the grounds of a retirement facility for veterans established in 1851. A place of respite and contemplation for Lincoln, Jeff Larry, director of preservation there, told the volunteers that it was at the cottage where Lincoln wrote the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Soldiers Home, Larry said, has limited resources so the GW volunteers “are a real help to us.”
Student volunteers cleaned and buffed a statue of Lincoln with his horse, Old Bob, just outside the cottage. They weeded grassy areas. They swept and scraped debris from the cobblestone paths.
“It’s very GW to be doing this,” said Emily Rodgers, a political science major. “It’s great to be fulfilling service, especially on a historical site.”
Michelle Li, who is from a town near Hong Kong and has yet to declare a major, found Washington, D.C., much bigger than she thought it was.
“Service Day is super meaningful,” Li said. “To see the Lincoln Cottage…it’s very historic, means a whole lot to the nation and culturally to the people. So, you just feel bonded.”
She and her roommate, Jocelyn Carillo, who is studying mechanical engineering, and Sundra Kim struggled with a small tree that had deep roots but now looked more like a scrawny, thin trunk with dead limbs. Kim, an international affairs major, suggested a more efficient way to use the shovels and other tools to help remove the dead remnants of a tree from the ground.
“Everybody has this shared purpose,” she said. “I never knew Lincoln’s Cottage existed. Now I want to visit here later. It shows the core values of GW, right when I’m starting, which makes it easier [for me] to carry out the next four years.
