FSU's Center for Leadership and Social Change Serves as Volunteer Opportunity

Many college students volunteer throughout high school but don’t know how to continue volunteering when they get to college in a new town. The FSU Center for Leadership and Social Change gives students opportunities to serve and grow as leaders on and off campus and around the world.

The Center’s Community Outreach program allows students to participate in community service projects at local non-profits. There are projects every day from Monday to Friday that happen at many times throughout the day to accommodate for every schedule. Some of the participating organizations include the Big Bend Homeless Coalition, the Boys and Girls Club, and the American Red Cross. Most projects don’t even require a weekly commitment. Students sign up for projects a week in advance. The Center even provides transportation to and from the project site.

Photo by Elaine Vigneault via Flickr.com

Without Words (WOW) is a social justice awareness program put on by the Center for FSU and the Tallahassee community, usually in the spring semester. Without Words leaders choose a few relevant social justice issues, ranging from water quality to homelessness to animal rights, and showcase them in a weeklong, museum-style program in the Florida State Oglesby Student Union. Students can get involved by joining an issues committee. Committee members research the issue and create that portion of the WOW exhibit. Without Words also needs volunteers the week of the exhibit to set up, tear down, and serve as program tour guides.

For those looking to do some traveling while they volunteer, the Center also offers Alternative Spring Break trips. Different trips focus on different issues such as disaster relief, education, and poverty. While the 2013 trips have not been announced yet, past trips have gone to a tiger rescue in North Carolina, a sustainable hunger relief center in Arkansas, Kiptopeke State Park in Virginia, and a children’s medical center in Memphis.

These are just a few of the ways the Center for Leadership and Social Change is working to get Seminoles out into the community and world to make a positive impact. For more information on any of these activities, or to see everything else The Center has to offer, visit http://thecenter.fsu.edu.