Approximately 650 incoming Belmont University freshmen volunteered to help in service to the Nashville community Monday as part of “Welcome Week” for the new school year at the Nashville university. Students worked on a variety of community service projects ranging from working in the warehouse at the Nashville Rescue Mission, packing food at Feed the Children, doing building repair work at Preston Taylor Ministries and landscaping at the Martha O’Bryan Center. Each year, Belmont invites incoming freshmen to participate in community service as part of a week-long slate of activities introducing them to life as a Belmont student.
“We realize the importance of encouraging young men and women to commit themselves to service,” said Belmont University President Dr. Robert Fisher. “At Belmont University we are dedicated to engaging our students in service through both classroom and community experiences, and we are sending hundreds of our newest students out into the community because of Belmont’s commitment to teaching our students the value of serving in their community.”
Belmont calls the service program S.E.R.V.E., which stands for Students Engaging and Restoring through Volunteer Experiences.
Approximately 650 students volunteered for a variety of projects at the Nashville Rescue Mission, Friends of Warner Parks, the Campus for Human Development, Christian Women’s Job Corps & The Next Door, the Salvation Army, the Nashville Safe Haven Family Shelter, Feed the Children, Preston Taylor Ministries, Kings Daughter Day Home, Fast Track, the YWCA Shelter and Domestic Violence Project, Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, Bethlehem Centers of Nashville, the Martha O’Bryan Center and Monroe Harding Children’s Home.
“I wouldn’t get this experience if I went to a public university,” freshman Amy Kedish, from Mundelein, IL, said. Kedish, who served at Radnor Lake, noted, “I am so glad there is this kind of service work here. I definitely made the right choice.”
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