New Website Takes Service to the Next Level
Finding community service opportunities and tracking completed hours is now easier than ever thanks to recent innovations to the SERVE Center website.
The website now features an interactive database which offers opportunities for students, community organizations and faculty to advertise and recruit volunteers for service and service-learning projects, while fostering communication between these parties.
Through the database, volunteers will be able to search for projects according to their interests, as well as log completed service hours. This will assist service organizations in recording and managing members’ hours and will also allow students to be recognized for their commitment to service on their co-curricular record.
Students may earn Gold, Silver or Bronze Service Awards for submitting 100, 80 or 60 hours, respectively. Awards will be distributed at the Leadership Recognition Program starting next year. Students who qualify for these awards will be asked to reflect in their co-curricular journal and to attend a Service-Learning Talk and Reflect (STAR) session where they can share their service experiences with others.
“The journal offers [students] prompts on how to reflect on the experience so it goes beyond service to an actual learning opportunity where they think about the skills they gain and the opportunities they’ve had through the service,” said Baillie Cloyd, program adviser for service and leadership.
Maintaining a database of service hours is beneficial for the University by providing accurate statistics for fundraising campaigns, grants and awards, including the President’s Community Service Honor Roll. Cloyd previously gathered totals by e-mailing campus organizations and having them estimate their completed service hours for the year.
“Any numbers we had were going to be underreporting,” Cloyd said. “This will give an accurate representation of what our students do and how involved they are.”
Cloyd thinks the new website will make the SERVE Center more visible and provide a starting place for students who are looking to get involved. She also said it will be a valuable tool for fostering community relations, making it easier for students to work and communicate with the community.
The inspiration for this project came from a session at the Missouri Campus Compact Statewide Conference two years ago. The presenting school had purchased a similar system through an outside company, paying to have it updated each year.
“After talking to our ITS department, they said they could just create it for us, and then it would be all in-house and we wouldn’t have to pay for it,” Cloyd said.
Cloyd and Greg Marshall, ITS web developer, have been working on the project since Fall 2010, and it has been up-and-running on the SERVE website for approximately one month. Marshall and Cloyd are perfecting the system, adding and brainstorming potential features with the official launch still to come.
“Officially, it’ll launch next fall because it’ll be a new semester, a new year, and we want people to start logging their hours that way and utilizing the different features,” Cloyd said.
Cloyd has been giving presentations to Truman organizations and offices and has also made a tutorial to educate local agencies on how to utilize the many features of the new system. She said she would welcome any feedback or new ideas for the project. For more information on the features and benefits of this project, or to schedule a tutorial, contact bcloyd@truman.edu.
The website now features an interactive database which offers opportunities for students, community organizations and faculty to advertise and recruit volunteers for service and service-learning projects, while fostering communication between these parties.
Through the database, volunteers will be able to search for projects according to their interests, as well as log completed service hours. This will assist service organizations in recording and managing members’ hours and will also allow students to be recognized for their commitment to service on their co-curricular record.
Students may earn Gold, Silver or Bronze Service Awards for submitting 100, 80 or 60 hours, respectively. Awards will be distributed at the Leadership Recognition Program starting next year. Students who qualify for these awards will be asked to reflect in their co-curricular journal and to attend a Service-Learning Talk and Reflect (STAR) session where they can share their service experiences with others.
“The journal offers [students] prompts on how to reflect on the experience so it goes beyond service to an actual learning opportunity where they think about the skills they gain and the opportunities they’ve had through the service,” said Baillie Cloyd, program adviser for service and leadership.
Maintaining a database of service hours is beneficial for the University by providing accurate statistics for fundraising campaigns, grants and awards, including the President’s Community Service Honor Roll. Cloyd previously gathered totals by e-mailing campus organizations and having them estimate their completed service hours for the year.
“Any numbers we had were going to be underreporting,” Cloyd said. “This will give an accurate representation of what our students do and how involved they are.”
Cloyd thinks the new website will make the SERVE Center more visible and provide a starting place for students who are looking to get involved. She also said it will be a valuable tool for fostering community relations, making it easier for students to work and communicate with the community.
The inspiration for this project came from a session at the Missouri Campus Compact Statewide Conference two years ago. The presenting school had purchased a similar system through an outside company, paying to have it updated each year.
“After talking to our ITS department, they said they could just create it for us, and then it would be all in-house and we wouldn’t have to pay for it,” Cloyd said.
Cloyd and Greg Marshall, ITS web developer, have been working on the project since Fall 2010, and it has been up-and-running on the SERVE website for approximately one month. Marshall and Cloyd are perfecting the system, adding and brainstorming potential features with the official launch still to come.
“Officially, it’ll launch next fall because it’ll be a new semester, a new year, and we want people to start logging their hours that way and utilizing the different features,” Cloyd said.
Cloyd has been giving presentations to Truman organizations and offices and has also made a tutorial to educate local agencies on how to utilize the many features of the new system. She said she would welcome any feedback or new ideas for the project. For more information on the features and benefits of this project, or to schedule a tutorial, contact bcloyd@truman.edu.
