Missouri State University Archives - Community Engagement Blog

Peace Corps Prep program arrives at Missouri State University

April 29, 2019 by Charles Whitaker

By Lucy Beeler

The Center for Community Engagement is excited to establish the Peace Corps Prep program at Missouri State University. The official partnership between the Peace Corps and the university is designed to prepare students for international development fieldwork and potential Peace Corps Service.

What is Peace Corps?

The Peace Corps was founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy. Since that time, the government-run program has sent American volunteers to 141 countries across the globe. Peace Corps volunteers serve within a variety of sectors, including education, health, environment, agriculture, youth in development, and community economic development, meaning there is something for everyone. The Peace Corps mission is to “promote world peace and friendship,” by implementing three goals:

To help the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

To find out more information about the Peace Corps and various volunteer openings, check out the website.

https://www.peacecorps.gov/

Why is the Peace Corps Prep Program important to Missouri State University?

Missouri State University implements learning in the framework of public affairs. Through the Peace Corps Prep program, students will directly engage in Missouri State’s public affairs mission, which includes pillars of cultural competence, ethical leadership, and community engagement. The Center for Community Engagement (CCE) will serve as a central hub for the program, connecting students with resources and experiences on and off campus. The CCE has a variety of ways to get students involved. Through completing a service-learning course, signing up for service opportunities, going on a Bear Breaks Immersion trip, or participating in Bear Service there are opportunities for all. The CCE’s goal is to help students learn how to become active citizens who have a passion for using their skills in the community.

If you would like to learn more information about MSU’s Peace Corps Prep program, visit www.missouristate.edu/cce/peaceprep.htm, call us at 417-836-5774, or drop by our office located in Plaster Student Union 131.

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Volunteer Hours or Service Hours?

September 28, 2017 by John Lang

I’ve worked in the CCE for one year plus six weeks to this point. Through the time spent in this office with the big green wall, I have shifted from being a student with some experience in volunteer work to an advocate for serving the community and the people that make it up.

I speak with students all the time about how they can get involved in Springfield and I can see it overwhelms them a bit. I know the look because I have made it several times. I remember making a similar face my freshman year as I sat through a mandatory meeting about volunteer hours for scholarships. I listened as there were countless ways to dive in listed off. It had never occurred to me that this community that I viewed as a temporary place of residence before I got my degree and got on with my life would have so much to offer in opportunities to learn and grow. I was overwhelmed because I thought these hours I had to complete would be painless, like much of the volunteer work I had done previously. Suddenly I was being encouraged to challenge myself and find a new passion!

Ignoring that challenge, I spent the majority of my first year looking for easy ways to find volunteer hours. I looked for on campus opportunities and one-time service days. I even applied to go on a Bear Breaks trip over Spring Break (mainly because I knew it would give me a lot of hours). That trip ended up being the best thing I did my entire freshman year as it is where I started to fall in love with service and the ability to build relationships through it.

I remember being overwhelmed during the trip when we were challenged to bring back our experience to make a difference in Springfield. I saw it as an insurmountable task, but I credit a beginning in my change in attitude to that trip. I started seeing solvable problems for the people in Springfield, rather than a laundry list of issues. I wasn’t completely cured of seeing these hours as a checkmark off my to-do list, but it would at least be a check mark I enjoyed.

In fact, I’m not sure I got over the to-do list mindset until I finished up the hours. After that, volunteer hours became service hours (a subtle but important difference). I started to serve at agencies where I felt there was a genuine need and the efforts were going toward an end goal that I was passionate about. And more importantly, instead of simply getting through the hours, I made efforts to learn from the community partners and fellow volunteers as I served next to them.

The point of all this is to challenge you to dive in. You could easily find volunteer hours or service hours around the Springfield area, but I encourage you to find the latter. If you ever need help, givepulse.com is chalk full of opportunities, and we would love to talk to you in the CCE. Just be warned, when you ask, “Where can I get service hours?” my response will not be, “There’s an opportunity in the PSU in two hours, but instead, “What do you enjoy doing?”

_{John Lang, Senior, Student Coordinator}

My Year in the Center for Community Engagement: Always Striving for More

June 14, 2017 by Katy Warfield

The school year has finally come to an end after what feels like an eternity. I’ve taken my last final and can now focus on my final year of undergrad starting in the fall. Though I am beyond excited for what the next year has to offer, I think it is appropriate to reflect on the stressful, yet meaningful year that I have had working in the Center for Community Engagement.

CCE Student Coordinators John and Katy helped provide more than 5,100 meals through Stomp Out Hunger.

More than 60 community members and students joined Katy and the CCE crew for a documentary Screening about Abuse and Neglect Awareness.

I have had the privilege to collaborate on 13 community and campus-wide events focused on engaging and informing students and community members alike. Semester service days have encouraged over one thousand Missouri State students to meaningfully serve the Springfield Community. Over fifteen hundred pounds of shoes were collected in November for Stomp Out Hunger and provided over 5,000 meals for distribution through Friends Against Hunger. The spring and fall Community Engagement Fairs connected over 100 community partners to university students eager to serve the community. Three documentary screenings and panels have provided a powerful narrative on child abuse as well as homelessness and hunger for students, community members, and partners to grasp the cultural competencies required to empathize with the populations we strive serve effectively. Students completed over 35,000 approved service hours for scholarship and GEP classes since the beginning of the 2016 school year. These numbers make me proud. They quantify the hard work that we, as an office, have put into promoting an inspired campus culture focused on community engagement and service.

Yet, these accomplishments were only a fraction of the effort put out by our office students and staff. This doesn’t include the Vision Screening Program trip to Haiti, Nixa Alternative Court program office case workers, or the dozens of community agencies paired with students for the year’s service learning program. I could go on and on listing the achievements of the school year for the Center for Community Engagement; however, I have one project that I would especially love to highlight. It is not a community outreach program or a Zone Blitz project. It is not a documentary screening or donation drive.

The project that I am extremely proud of is the CCE’s work in redefining its vision, values, and mission statement. As an office, we have created a new focal point to reflect and better ourselves as a means to foster a more sustainable and reciprocal student-to-community network. The effort to fulfill our duty as a public affairs institution and as a representative of the Community Engagement pillar is made possible by the internal office motivation to strive to do more. More community talks. More students applying to Bear Breaks Immersion trips. More meaningful service performed. More open office environment inviting students to come in a feel more comfortable asking for help. More community agency partnerships.

This office has brought me friendships and mentorship from so many individuals that always look for more. It is an incredible environment to be in. My leadership and ability to take on responsibility has been tested and though I have made mistakes along the way, I always strive to do more. Community Engagement is more than just service hours and documentaries. It is about creating connection and meaning. Redefining our vision and how we achieve it is crucial to fulfilling our duty as Bears and citizen servant leaders.

The Public Affairs Conference: Not Just Another Talking Point

April 6, 2017 by John Lang

For me, walking from the PSU to Strong Hall can become monotonous. You look around, maybe make eye contact with a stranger, and spend the rest of the walk dwelling on how cold, or hot, or windy it is. But one week a semester, when the flags are flying, I have something to look at and think about. I look at almost 200 flags and think about how each represents a country full of people, just like me, who have a story to tell, just like me. If we had it my way, the flags would be out every week.

For full disclosure, I have not always considered Public Affairs a passion of mine. It was not one of the reasons I decided to come to Missouri State, and I certainly didn’t expect to be in the position I am now where I work with it on a daily basis.This is my sixth semester on campus and my third spring semester. With the spring semester, I instantly think of the Public Affairs Conference. What a privilege it is to go to a university that hosts a conference of this magnitude. I went to my first session two years ago during my freshman year to fulfill a requirement from a program. It was a panel discussing religion, rights, and where the line is drawn between the two. There was a panelist from a scholarly perspective and a panelist from foreign country offering a different perspective. I was surprised to find that there were two panelists who did not at all consider themselves to be experts in religion but instead who were engaged citizens with a story and a perspective unique to them. This Public Affairs Conference is full of experts, but the discussions take place in an effort to promote conversation and bridge gaps for those of us who are not experts.

I was given the opportunity this week to shuttle panelists from their hotel to the PSU for the conference. In the short drive across Springfield, I was able to learn about the conference from the perspective of a panelist returning for his second time. According to this panelist, the detail that separates this conference from other conferences around the nation is the fact that each panelist is hand picked. Speakers aren’t able to apply or register to speak this week; if they are here, they were chosen to be here. It also sticks out that when speakers are chosen and agree to come for our Public Affairs Conference, they have no idea what their topic will be. I love this because it doesn’t allow speakers to only speak on a topic where they may be the most comfortable. It gets the speakers out of their comfort zone a little bit, and as an audience member, you can feel this dynamic. The panelist sets the tone with this authenticity and the audience follows by engaging in an educated discussion.

In every session I have sat in on over these three years, whether the topic is Religion, Freedom of Choice, Sustainability, or Hunger and Poverty, there seems to be a common theme. The panelists give a statement that ranges from very informed to very passionate and opens it up to Q&A. Students and citizens ask questions looking for straight answers only to be disappointed when they are told there is no straight answer. Instead, these panelists engage in a discussion about circumstances, empathy, ethics, and self sufficiency.

There is a reason these speakers are chosen to be here. They’ve made an impact on this world in their chosen field. They are well versed, educated, and practiced. They may be authors, professors, physicians, or politicians, but I always leave reminded that they are people. They have opinions, values, morals, and stressors. They were once students who were unsure about their future, or young adults who made mistakes. They will tell you that they are just people who followed what they cared about, and treated people like people.

Public Affairs has taught me that the only thing separating us from making a change is a little bit more questioning, a lot more listening, and a fair share of humility. Meaningful conversations shouldn’t be limited to one week a semester, so I’m glad Missouri State does its best to facilitate these conversations.

I may not have come here for the Public Affairs Mission, but it certainly is one of my biggest takeaways. There’s always room for empathy, compassion, and dialogue, and those don’t have to stop when the flags come down.

It Takes a Community

November 18, 2016 by John Lang

Bear Blitz is this year’s Public Affairs Signature Event, an event that really puts students out there to learn more about the issues Springfield faces as a community, how those affect the state, country, and world, and how they also affect each and every person in their daily walk. Bear Blitz is the University sending students to the streets of Northwest Springfield, referred to as Zone 1. A result of much research and planning, The Zone 1 Blitz is a city wide effort to improve the neighborhoods of Zone 1 and make for healthier and safer living. Much of the work being done is through the Springfield Community Gardens. These are places that residents can visit to receive fresh produce, and learn about healthy lifestyle choices they could implement into their own life. Through Bear Blitz, Missouri State students were able to help to make this goal a reality for the residents of those neighborhoods.

It is worth mentioning, I have worked in many community gardens around the country. Through Bear Breaks Immersion trips I have been able to witness different types of gardens in different cities, that each focus on specific issues that plague their community. I have had great experiences, and some that were not so great. I have learned more than I can fit into one post about how big of an impact a garden can make on a community. But what I have learned most was driven deeper today than I can imagine. I was reminded one person cannot possibly maintain a garden for an entire community, but when an entire community comes together, no one person has to feel like they are over worked. As I have heard it put, “Many hands make for light work.”

I volunteered at the Hovey House Community Garden, and had an experience I won’t soon forget. It may have been a little slow at times, but that led to discussions and relationship building that cannot be rivaled. I like to say, “Friends that serve together, stay together,” and I think there is more truth to it than I know. Relationships built around service are built on mutual respect, humility, humanity, meaningful dialogue and vulnerability.

To begin our service I was given a shovel and told to loosen up the soil so marble slabs that had been buried would be able to be reached. Honestly, I was a little disappointed. I wasn’t getting the chance to get my hands dirty, or do anything that I had really expected. Hopeful for work that would be more “fun”, I, along with another MSU volunteer, was given a pitchfork and told to go find the previously mentioned marble slab. After about thirty minutes of stabbing the ground with a fork hoping to hit a rock, we had collected three slabs of marble about the size of a keyboard. We were fooled time and again by pebbles that would hit the pitchfork only to let our hopes down when we dug around. I finally got my hands dirty and felt like I did something, even if I had few results to show for it.

The next phase was the part that will keep me coming back. A truck Ozarks Food Harvest came and delivered dozens of boxes of food, the majority being fruits and vegetables. I was not sure what the purpose was at the time, but I jumped in and carried things where I could. What blew me away was the efficiency at which everyone worked to unload the truck. Even with between 10-15 volunteers and a very small shed,I never felt cramped. Everyone was split into three stations, unloading, unpacking and box tear down. I am not exaggerating when I say the hundreds of pounds of food had been sorted and packed away withing about ten minutes of beginning. For a short time I stopped and tried to just take a step back to realize how amazing this system was working.

While I was welcome to leave after this, I stayed for about another hour. I sat and talked to other volunteers, mostly just community members, for almost all of it. I asked how they became involved, what kept them coming back, and more and answered similar questions, but more than anything we just talked. We shared life experiences, stories, and thoughts. We swapped ideas, opinions, and goals. It was unbelievably refreshing. So often when we serve, we are not actually serving with our whole heart, but instead just getting our hours in for our scholarships, classes, organizations, or resumes. Being out there this week helped me to realize how many people live in Zone 1 and are looking to improve their life. They are looking for a way to enrich their lives, and many of those I met today are able to use service to their community as the vehicle.

Bear Blitz encourages students to pop the college bubble. It challenges preconceived notions and forces inward reflection. All it takes is an hour of your time and you can go from being frustrated with digging for rocks to being an engaged citizen that is eager to learn about others’ lives and what they think. It’s that easy. For more information on how you can serve these communities, feel free to visit the Center for Community Engagement in PSU 131, online at our website, or at http://givepulse.com. There is so much work to be done, we cannot possibly do it on our own, but any hands we can get lightens the load.

_{-John Lang, Junior, Student Coordinator, Center for Community Engagement}