News
Whittier College Cebrated Dedication to Service
May 1, 2008 Press Release
Whittier College will celebrate the hundreds of hours of community service provided by Whittier College students over the 2007-08 school year in the fourth College and Community Program and Expo. The event will take place on Saturday, May 3 at 10 a.m. in the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts at Whittier College, 6760 Painter Ave., Whittier, CA 90608. The program is organized by the Whittier Scholars Program.
A student panel will discuss the various projects they have worked on and will address the topic of community-based learning.
"Students have been working on a range of projects, from working with 5th Dimension at Whittier College to doing internships in various places in the community," said Joyce Kauffman, Program Director.
About 90 college students, majoring in everything from psychology and education to business and biology, partnered with 36 community service organizations on diverse projects.
One social work class took on a parent literacy program with Lydia Jackson Elementary School. The project involved getting parents of students at the elementary school to participate in a weekly one-hour group session where they would read a book and discuss it as a group. Parents then took the books home to their children for them to read and enjoy.
"Parents reported that their children looked forward to the books each week," said Adjunct Professor Angel Rodriguez, who led the project. "The purpose of the project was to give the students hands-on experience with clients. But more importantly, it was to increase the awareness of importance of literacy in the community."
Other community partners include the AIDS Service Center, Whittier Boys and Girls Club, Whittier High School, and Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital.
The college-community project is sponsored by the McCabe Foundation and the California Campus Compact.
Founded by Quakers in 1887, Whittier College is an independent, four-year college offering a traditional liberal arts program integrated with both professional and pre-professional courses of study. With an emphasis on diversity, community, and curricular innovation, the College’s primary mission is to endow students with the education, skills, and values appropriate for global leadership and service. Whittier College is a designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI).
Whittier Law School, which is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools, is located on a separate campus in Orange County.
