Volunteer UGA

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Volunteer UGA Film Festival! You don’t want to miss it!

“We are not talking about how to run a better meeting, how to get elected to an office, or how to conduct a bake sale. We are talking about changing the world. We are talking about getting out of your comfort zone and becoming the tipping point that changes everything.”

“I Serve to…”

One of my favorite quotes is that of Mohandas Gandhi. It goes a like this, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” That’s what we are all about here at Volunteer UGA…making those connections in order to better understand ourselves, our community, and the relation between the individual and the whole. Volunteer UGA is made up of approximately 3500 students. Those 3500 students are part of the now 46 service organizations on campus that make up the Volunteer UGA Community. We are constantly evolving, changing, and learning as a community to better serve the needs of the community at large. We can define service as “the act of helping or doing work for someone.” It is when we participate in the act of helping another in some way that we can bridge the connect and begin to better understand the ourselves to the relationships that we gain.

 I had the privilege of going through all of the “I Serve To..” posters that were made at our 2011 V-UGA Community Retreat this past October when we were putting them up for display on the art wall in Tate. The posters truly are an inspiration and really define what we do here in the Volunteer UGA Community. As you will find from viewing the “I serve to…” posters, there are many different inspirations and motivations to serve amongst the V-UGA community members and organizations, but we are all the same that we want to serve and desire make a difference. If you haven’t had the chance to see the art wall yet, you definitely should. The display will be up until November 12th!

Anyone involved with VolunteerUGA is all too familiar with the term sustainability, but is that not what college is all about? Students attend class to acquire knowledge that will provide them with the tools for a successful and healthy future. Students make friends and establish relationships that require management and lifelong maintenance. Just as important as the prior, students should leave college informed of societal needs and engaged in sustainable service.

College is too often taken for granted and students forget how fortunate they are to attend a university of higher education. It’s not just a place to acquire skills and make friends, but a place to learn how to give back to those less fortunate or those that need a hand. Every student should attend a real life course in community service and learn ways to give back to their community as well as become familiar with its needs and how one can help to further improve them. This experience is necessary for the foundation of sustainable, lifelong service.

Do not view service as something that ends with school, but rather something that never ends just like societal needs. Use college as an opportunity to enlighten yourself of the needs locally or globally and find what improvements you truly wish to see and be involved with. Yes, temporary service makes a temporary difference, but lifelong service lives on and will be instilled within others. So, to you reading this, I ask you a favor, enroll in community service and see what you learn. Take that first step towards sustainable lifelong service and make the commitment to give back and improve.  After all college is a time of preparation and every student should be prepared to do something beyond themselves and make a difference that is timeless.

Viktor Frankl, 1972. (click on the source below the text to view the TED video…it wouldn’t post in the video section:( #unsavvy )

What is your meaning and purpose in life? Why do you serve? Why should we BELIEVE in people?

I think that it is imperative - as we focus our lives, or at least sections of our lives, on service, interculturalism, justice, and learning - to be idealists. Frankl makes the point that to look at humans as they really are constrains us to a reality that, frankly, bites. But to aim for a humanity that is higher than our current state gives us the opportunity to reach that and continue upwards. That higher aim is the very definition of idealism. I do not support naivety; no one should. There is a healthy balance between what is real and what is ultimately attainable. And to keep hope alive as we give our time, money, effort, energy, emotions, brainpower, and everything else we have to give to serve humanity we MUST believe that humanity is capable, at least capable, of attaining that which is greater than ourselves. To serve hopefully is to be an idealist.

An inspiring watch!

Words to live by

Welcome back from the Snowpocalypse 2011!  This week we are holding our first ever film festival! So far we have heard wonderful speakers and watched some truly inspiring documentaries, but don’t fret - there’s three more to come!

Tomorrow, Thursday, we will be in the Miller Learning Center (the Zell), room 348 with two showings - Sicko at 5:30 and Kicking It at 8:00. 

Friday, we will be in Park Hall, room 265 for Darius Goes West. 

Hope to see you there!