By: Maham Kamal, Ryan Siegel and Sydney Straschnov

Exiting the metro, the streets of downtown DC bustled with morning activity. Working citizens pushed towards their offices, groups of friends connected heading to breakfast and American University (AU) students dressed in matching white t-shirts followed their leaders along unfamiliar routes, gazing around wide-eyed and chatting with new acquaintances they had met only the night before.

The students are only a few of the 500 freshmen and transfer students led by 98 student leaders who signed up to participate in the Freshman Service Experience (FSE). Excitement, enthusiasm and bright ideas for the students’ futures at AU resonated among the participants’ discussions. But is the program all about starting a fun-filled year at AU or actually giving back to the community of DC? 

Freshmen students who participate in community service projects often continue to serve areas of DC, developing a circle of service that starts with AU’s FSE program. This has the potential to create a long-term effect on the greater DC community, but only if the students commit to pursuing and promoting a life of service.

FSE began in 1990 and since then has seen over 10,000 students partake in the program. The students are led by their fellow classmates over two days to about 50 different nonprofit organizations throughout the city. Divided into teams by region of the District, the new students disperse from the confines of the campus and travel to areas of DC that are often overlooked.

Over the years, AU’s students have returned to certain organizations, building relationships with the site and the organization leaders who say they rely on the students’ service. This year, some students volunteered at CentroNía, a multicultural community and bilingual learning environment for children. It is a nonprofit that offers programs for early childhood development, food and wellness, community engagement and education and family support. CentroNía serves over 600 families lacking the resources for education. An FSE group of nine students and two leaders worked with Elizabeth Bruce, an art teacher at the school, to recycle and compile students’ artwork into presentable pieces.

The commitment of teachers like Bruce prompts students to come back as volunteers on their own time or as FSE leaders. According to Bruce, FSE “totally makes a difference. We had a backlog of artwork that we needed to assemble and put together. It’s fun work but time consuming and having a team to mass produce all of this is a tremendous help […] I’ve had groups coming here for freshman service and throughout the year to volunteer.” The FSE students helped getting more of the student artwork onto the barren walls of the school.  

Development Associate at CentroNía Alice Sadler believes students make an important impact: “As a nonprofit, we definitely rely a lot on volunteer support. […] For someone who participated in the freshmen service program in their own school, it is great to see the practice be continued at schools.”  

Even though the number of students participating in FSE this year decreased from previous years, it did not weaken the relationship of the program with organizations or lessen their perception of FSE’s impact.  “We had fewer groups come in this time because of timing conflicts, but any support is welcome from AU — whether it’s 3 or 50, any little support makes the biggest difference,” Sadler said.  

Other FSE teams went to organizations that rely on a large number of logged volunteer hours in order to produce much-needed materials. At The DC Center for the LGBT Community — which focuses on educating and empowering the LGBT community in areas of health and wellness, arts and culture, social and support services and advocacy and community building — the FSE team packaged approximately 2,500 safe-sex “Fuk!t” kits. These kits, given out for free at focal points around the city, help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, primarily among men who have sex with men. Since The DC Center has given out 90,000 “Fuk!t” kits and over one million condoms since 2011, the organization greatly relies on help from volunteers like those from FSE, so that their small team can focus on specialized tasks.

The students’ drive grabbed the attention of the members of the DC Center. “It’s only been an hour, but they’re passionate about the issue, and I like to see their enthusiasm,” said DC Center employee Ryan Freeland, 21, from Ann Arbor, MI.

Strength in numbers is essential for the DC Center to convey their message across several different D.C. communities.  Hannah Dorsey, a freshman from St. Louis, was one of the many students enthusiastic about her time at the DC Center. “I chose to be a part of FSE to get a jumpstart into the service community at (sic) DC,” Dorsey said. “Just sitting here and doing small tasks really helps other specialized people at organizations.”

The tasks can range from copying flyers to making and distributing the well-known “Fuk!t” kits. The quality of the work comes through the sheer quantity of people working. The more people that are working, the more kits they can produce to make their communities aware of the problems in society.

The same trend of scale over simplicity appeared to be prevalent at Bread for the City, another organization where FSE participants volunteered. Students experienced firsthand the multitude of diverse and at times laborious work that the few regular volunteers of the organization accomplish daily; students found fulfillment in the amount of work they could contribute to such a vital organization even though their group was so small. They were surprised by how impactful volunteering to pick vegetables is to the nonprofit. Joshua Kerobeo, 18, a freshman from Cincinnati, said that he found Bread for the City’s cause impressive because they “don’t just provide actual bread, but legal bread, social bread and even religious bread.”

FSE doesn’t just allow students to get involved for two days, but encourages participants to continue to serve for the rest of their college careers and lives. Many freshman participants come back the next year emboldened to become leaders. One such person is Taylor Dumpson, 19, from Salisbury, MD. Dumpson said that she “loves seeing how we can mold the freshmen,” and that through assisting Bread for the City the kids really “got to see the fruits of their labor.” Some people thought their work was going to be very menial, “but you go in and this organization only has about 25 people. Eight of us filled around 16 cartons [of food], and all of that is going to go to families.”

Dumpson’s co-leader, Sydney Young, 18, of Baltimore, finds issues with how FSE is marketed to incoming students in a manner that tampers with the spirit of service. However, she sees the program as a model which she can apply to her own program, in which AU students will combat a variety of social injustices in her hometown.  

FSE provides a training ground for students like Dumpson and Young who embrace the spirit of service and continue to serve long after their freshman year. Emily Nelson, 21, a senior at AU from Kearney, NE visited CentroNía her freshman year and came full circle this year by leading a team to the site. “It’s [service that] changed my college career; I came to school not knowing what I’ll be studying but then I volunteered with kids and eventually changed my minor to education,” she said. Nelson attributed this to the passion shown by her leaders in FSE and teachers at AU.  “Leaders were more than just leaders; they were mentors,” Nelson said.

Such inspiration throughout FSE from leaders and organizations contributes to the pool of givers in the community as many students also head to organisations like CentroNía for professional experience in the field of service. “In just my department this year we had two AU students interning, and we had several in the past who tutored with us as FSE introduces organizations to students,” Sadler said.

According to organization leaders and FSE leaders and participants alike, the program does indeed have a profound effect. By planting a seed for the roots of service to flourish, citizens can reap the needed fruits that improve their society. FSE empowers freshmen to see beyond the boundaries of their own comfort zone.  Dumpson said, “In order to get change we need to get these students to challenge their misconceptions, and FSE does that by showing them the community outside of AU, by giving them the opportunity to see that it isn’t all what it looks from the outside.”