Students engage in MLK Day of Service

University of South Dakota students teamed up with the Center for Academic Engagement to participate in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service that took place Monday as part of the annual Keeping the Dream Alive events.

The volunteers split up into groups to do different projects involving 17 community partners in Vermillion and Yankton, according to law student Sara Hento who helped with the organization of the service day.

“We mostly do small work for community organizations that don’t have a lot of hands to finish the projects,” Hento said.

One volunteer group went to the St. Thomas More Newman Center to finish a paint job in of the rooms utilized for various events.

Junior Jessica Sundleaf is on the executive board of Alternative Week of Off-Campus Learning (AWOL) and was the site leader in charge of the volunteers at the Newman Center.

“I attend the Newman Center and I’m here all the time, so I know that they don’t have the time to do jobs like this so it takes the stress off of them,” Sundleaf said. “It brings us as college students closer to the Vermillion community.”

Sundleaf, a pre-med student, said that the want to volunteer and help people is ingrained in her and hopes to make it a part of her career.

Along with several SESDAC members, sophomore Taylor Strong and a handful of the service day volunteers spent their time at the Vermillion Public Library, cleaning and organizing.

After working with the people from SESDAC, Strong enjoyed her time with them and said the service day was a good opportunity to give back to the community.

“AWOL is a good organization that USD has, and it deserves a lot of credit for what they do for the community,” Strong said.

For the service day, Hento listed three social issues which were focused on: hunger in the Vermillion area, revitalization for community partners and student interaction with community members.

Keynote speaker Dawn Fraser will wrap up the MLK Jr. events with “The Art of Storytelling in Leadership” address taking place Jan. 21 in the Muenster University Center Ballroom at 7p.m.