Lipscomb hosts nonprofit organizations for local service fair
Chris Pepple |
Partnering with nonprofit agencies and serving together in our community has been woven into the campus life since the early days of Lipscomb University. We have been a campus connecting our students, faculty and staff to our community and serving together to keep Nashville and its citizens thriving physically, spiritually and intellectually. We have now joined a handful of universities such as California State University-Monterey Bay and Columbia University that have added service learning as a graduation requirement. To assist students in finding opportunities for mission opportunities or service opportunities to fulfill their service learning credits, the SALT Program and Missions Program hosted the sixth Local Service Fair on campus on Tuesday.
“The primary purpose of the Local Service Fair is to give our students, faculty and staff an opportunity to see the many great service organizations we have in the Nashville area and to encourage them to become involved in some way. Our intention is for it to not only benefit the agency in recruiting volunteers, but to also benefit the Lipscomb family as we make it convenient for them to gather information on the local service opportunities in just a few minutes time. Whether students are seeking ways to fill hours for their service credits, looking for opportunities for them and their friends to serve alongside one another or simply if they just want to serve in a way that allows them to put others above themselves, the Local Service Fair reaches not only dozens of agencies, but literally thousands of people here in Nashville if you consider the clients they serve,” said Mark Jent, assistant director of missions.
“Sponsored by the missions program and SALT, this event is a great opportunity for the Lipscomb community to learn about new and exciting ways to get involved with community-serving organizations. The Fair is an expo style event, with staff from community agencies sharing information with Lipscomb students, staff and faculty. This year we had representatives from almost 50 nonprofit organizations on campus from a variety of organizations, including Bethlehem Center, Faith Family Medical Clinic, Oasis Center, Refugee Services-Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Youth Encouragement Services, Churches of Christ Disaster Relief and many others,” said Christin Shatzer, director of service learning, the SALT Center.
Trey Lipman, vice president for development and community relations for CommunityNashville, enjoyed the opportunity the meet with Lipscomb students. “Your university hosts the most organized fair we have been to. You make it very easy to sign up and set up our booth. Everyone on campus is very hospitable, and the organizers go out of their way to make us feel comfortable here. We hope Lipscomb students volunteer with us.”
Don McGonagil with Youth for Christ agrees that Lipscomb offers students and organizations a wonderful opportunity to come together for common causes. “I can affirm that you do have an exceptional service fair. Everyone on campus helps to make this a wonderful event, and we enjoy having the opportunity to work with Lipscomb students.”
“I have worked with Lipscomb students as they worked on their first SALT projects. The students packed 440 boxes of hygiene kits among other things. They did a fantastic job. I also came to the seminar Lipscomb hosted about structuring internships within organizations. It has been a pleasant surprise to learn about Lipscomb and all of the wonderful things you are doing here. I hope my connection grows with your university and your students,” said Mark Harmon of Friends Life.
“This has been extremely helpful for me. I am in Lipscomb Seminar and am looking for places to serve for my SALT credits. My old school required service also, but they didn’t provide a fair like this which makes it easy for me to find opportunities to serve,” said Leah Neeley, freshman.
“I walked through the fair just to find a place for my friends and I to volunteer. This is a great way to show us the opportunities here in Nashville,” said sophomore Amy Kerr.
Anyone interested in finding opportunities to serve in or near the Nashville area can find a listing of organizations who participated in the fair on the missions program’s website.