Service is an integral part of the Le Moyne experience.
Through its various programs, courses and service opportunities, the College’s Office of Service Learning encourages Le Moyne College students to be responsible and engaged citizens who demonstrate the Ignatian ideals of academic excellence and concern for the whole person. The staff in the OSL works with nonprofit agencies in and around Syracuse to provide members of the Le Moyne community with the opportunity to serve others. Some of those opportunities are associated with a particular service-learning course, while others are extracurricular. Among the organizations the office works with are the American Heart Association, Cathedral Academy at Pompei, the Syracuse Rescue Mission and Meals on Wheels.
Service-learning students are:
• challenged to integrate community service with their course objectives
• guided by faculty to reflect on their experiences through class discussion, journals, presentations and papers
• invited to join the CLAS (Community, Learning and Service) Act or LEAD (Leadership, Education, Action and Decision) learning communities, in which students live near each other and share certain courses in order to help them acclimate to college. CLAS Act is designed for students interested in a career in education, while LEAD is geared toward students of any major who are interested in service.
Students may become engaged in service by:
- participating in Projects in the Community (P.I.C.), in which they volunteer their time to various charitable organizations such as the American Red Cross and the Syracuse Rescue Mission
- serving as a work-study student at a Catholic Charities Neighborhood Center or the People in Action program at Springfield Gardens
- enrolling in one of the College’s service - learning courses in education, psychology, Spanish, accounting, nursing, history, sociology, communications and more.
- taking part in the Dolphins in Volunteer Efforts (D.I.V.E.) program, an opportunity for first year students to participate in a community service project during the first Sunday of the semester
During the 2007-08 school year, over 500 Le Moyne students in 43 service-learning courses donated more than 8,700 hours of service at 81 local agencies. An additional 1028 students gave 4,571 hours of volunteer service to assist community agencies in the Syracuse area, including the Salvation Army, the American Cancer Society and Hospice of Central New York. The same academic year, Le Moyne students donated more than 13,00 hours working with preschoolers in Syracuse through the College’s Jumpstart Program.