One day after they moved into residence halls, more than 400 Neumann University first-year students flooded local organizations, schools and charities to provide a day of service to the community.
At 8:30 a.m. on Friday, August 24, students packed the Mirenda Center to learn their destinations, meet their faculty/staff facilitators, and load buses and vans for a day of helping worthy causes. They tackled projects like cleaning, painting and yard work for the Aston Fire Company, the Boys and Girls Club of Chester, Drexel Neumann Academy, Fair Acres, Media Food Bank, Providence Animal Center, and 20 other area organizations from Philadelphia to Wilmington.
The Day of Service is part of Welcome Weekend for both commuters and residents at Neumann. The activity is in keeping with the university’s Franciscan tradition, which emphasizes service to others. Part of the university’s mission statement, in fact, is that “knowledge is a gift to be used in the service of others.”
When the new students returned to campus, they attended their first college class, The Neumann Experience (INT 101), and discussed the importance of volunteerism and community service.
INT 101 is a required, one-credit course that explores the meaning of learning and education in the context of Neumann University’s philosophy and mission. Content focuses on self-motivated learning, values clarification, critical thinking, student-faculty communication, time management, and learning techniques.