Expand your experience while making an impact on your community. The Center for Community
Engagement and Service Learning can help you find a place to volunteer or do a course-based
service learning project.
Check our full calendar of upcoming service projects or pursue your own independent service project by exploring the list of community agencies who we partner with.
Below you'll find a number of ways to get involved and get your hands dirty. Whether
you want to jump in on one of our pre-organized days of service or discover a new
city while serving that community with an Alternative Break Trip. We also coordinate
the Lily Community Engagement Award which recognizes students who are involved in service learning.
Forms for students, Clubs, and Organizations
Lily Community Engagement Award
Giving back to our community is a rewarding experience and we want to recognize you
for all your hard work and dedication. Learn more about how to have your efforts formally
recognized. Discover the guidelines for earning the Lily Award and the Lily Award
with Distinction.
LEARN MORE
Alternative Break Program
An Alternative Break trip gives you the chance to visit a new city or country while
making an impact in a community. From Nashville to New York City, each week-long trip
is service oriented so students volunteer their time with a wide variety of organizations,
like Habitat for Humanity or the Ronald McDonald House.
Find your Trip
Days of Service
Join the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning for one of our Days
of Service. These are a great way to jump-start your service learning experience:
all you have to do is pick a day, choose a service opportunity, and show up. Everything
is taken care of for you. Explore our Days of Service and find an opportunity that
calls to you.
Learn More
Student Service Corps
Become a leader in service learning. Apply to join the Catamount Student Service Corps
where you'll expand your impact in our community and grow your leadership skills by
helping plan, organize and lead service learning projects. Students who are eligible
for Federal Work-Study can apply for the program.
The Ripple Effect
An experiential learning community, The Ripple Effect challenges students like you
to find what you really love in the world and how to effect change that can make a
lasting impact. Curricular Components will include two courses during the fall semester with a Community
Engagement Project that will allow you and your classmates address a relevant issue
by working together.
Make Your impact
Student Democracy Coalition
As a part of the ongoing campaign to register, educate, and mobilize and voters in North Carolina, the Student Democracy Coalition supports student habits of being educated and informed, registered and active, and passionate and
purposeful.
Learn More
Local Food & Farm to School Education Project
Are you a School of Teaching and Learning or Nutrition/Dietetics student? Through
the Growing Minds @ WCU project, you can learn how to teach children about local food
and farms as well as how to grow and cook their own food. See how this project is
changing the way children in Western North Carolina interact with farms, food, and
nutrition.
Learn More
Catamount Leaders Active With Service (CLAWS)
Through a firm foundation in the core principles of servant leadership, civic mindedness,
and locally-specific curricula, the Catamount Leaders Active With Service (CLAWS)
program will create and develop a culture of student civic engagement and leadership
on campus.
LEARN MORE