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Providence College Students: Transforming Society

Posted on May 17, 2023

“Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”

– Mother Teresa

Performing community service is a way of life for a majority of Providence College (PC) students as they complete thousands of hours of community service every year. Eager to give back to the community that they have called home for the last four years, community service initiatives play a vital role in the PC experience. More than 100 community agencies, schools, and other non-profit sites in the Greater Providence area benefited from PC students’ volunteer time and talent this academic year. Volunteer service is provided through the Office of the Chaplain/Campus Ministry, the Office of Student Affairs, the Feinstein Institute for Public Service, the Office of Public Affairs, Government and Community Relations, the Student Athlete Advisory Council, and many of the College’s student clubs, organizations, and service-learning classes.

FriarServe is a service initiative now in its sixth year. In 2017, PC committed a $100,000 gift to Catholic schools in the Diocese of Providence in celebration of the College’s Centennial and in support of Catholic education in RI. In 2021, PC announced a second gift of $100,000, reaffirming the College’s support of Catholic education in the diocese. The College’s gifts were made through the Diocesan Catholic School Office (CSO) in equal sums for four years, with two major components. The money is used for scholarships given to students attending Catholic elementary and secondary schools via the CSO’s Anchor of Hope Fund, a diocesan financial assistance fund that helps financially strapped families secure a Catholic school education for their children. A portion of the funds are set aside specifically for five Catholic Pre-K – 8 schools in the Greater Providence area: Bishop McVinney School (South Providence), Blessed Sacrament School (Mt. Pleasant), St. Augustine School (also Mt. Pleasant), St. Pius V School (Elmhurst) and St. Rocco School (Johnston).

Perhaps the most important aspect of FriarServe is its community service component. PC students, staff and faculty are invited to volunteer their time to each of the five above-mentioned schools during the academic year. Not all schools have the same programs, but all have more than one. FriarServe continued its dedicated service to those schools again this academic year, providing activities including art club, cheer club, tutoring, classroom assistance, homework help, and gym takeover, as well as reading times.

Volunteer statistics for the sixth year of FriarServe are as follows:

Total numbers of volunteers for 2022-2023: 154; Total number of volunteer hours: 820

Other notable PC student service projects:

• More than 60 PC first-year students participated in the FaithWorks pre-orientation service immersion program in August. The program, now in its twelfth year, is led by upperclassmen peers. Sponsored by Campus Ministry, FaithWorks enables new PC students to build community with their peers, perform service work for vulnerable populations in Providence, and reflect on the significance of this work for their own lives. The participants were able to do service with sites in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, including My Brother’s Keeper; Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School, St. Patrick’s Academy and Church; St. Pius V School and Church; McAuley Ministries and Habitat for Humanity Providence.

• The student leaders of Elderly Outreach engaged hundreds of the Friar student body to personally handwrite seasonal cards to local homebound residents. Nearly 300 handwritten cards were delivered for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. 

• The Service and Justice arm of Campus Ministry also partnered up to organize the MLK Joint Day of Service, collaborating with College Unbound for a day of education, advocacy and to fill 100 bags of school supplies for the students within the program and offering handwritten notes of encouragement and support. 

• The NOLA Immersion was back on the schedule this year. Nine students, a coordinator, and Chaplain took off to the ninth ward in St Bernards Parish, New Orleans. One week in January was spent in the neighborhoods worst hit by Hurricane Katrina working alongside new and seasoned programming to rebuild the neighborhoods of New Orleans. We served Grace at the Greenlight offering meals and time to the community experiencing homelessness and worked construction with Youth Rebuilding New Orleans, and Lower Nine Organization. 

• Coordinated through Friends of San Lucas, 9 students from various corners of the PC Student Body will take part once again in May Immersion to Guatemala. This group has already met for the pre-trip Retreat and is ready for a week in San Lucas Tolimán, where they will be learning about the community pre and post-civil war and working alongside the community while learning about and from them. 

Established in 1993, the Feinstein Institute for Public Service at Providence College was created to support the major and minor in Public and Community Service Studies. After two decades, the Institute turned its efforts to campus-community partnerships aimed at addressing the larger questions underlying our public and community service systems. Over the past two years, the Institute has worked with campus and community partners to focus its efforts on questions of racial and economic justice, particularly for youth and families, both locally and globally.  To date, the Institute has 37 community partners.

• The Feinstein Institute’s Community Work Study Program partnered with 17 schools and non-profits within the Providence area. Twenty-eight students participated in the program and used their federal work study award to work with our partners in the local community as an after-school tutor, health care advocate, or social media intern. The students have worked over 4,300 hours within the community over the past year and gained professional experience working in non-profits and schools which has created lasting, community-wide systems that welcome and support students and Providence community members.

• The Feinstein Institute’s Feinstein Community Fellows Program brings together undergraduate students and community partners who share the Feinstein Institute’s commitment to overcoming racial inequity, local and global poverty, and barriers to young people’s capacity to achieve their aspirations. Now in its fifth year, the program matched 14 PC students with ten different community organizations. The Fellows were given their own project responsibilities that ranged from restructuring the bilingual volunteer training at the RI Free Clinic, to enhancing the training and workshops at Mentor RI, to building graduate support and mentoring at Sophia Academy. All of the Fellows participated in bi-weekly meetings to reflect on their service and examine social justice, non-profits, power, and privilege.  Together, they completed over 2,500 hours of service throughout the 2022-2023 school year.

Athletics:

• The Athletic Department’s commitment to service others, and our surrounding community remained consistently strong as demonstrated by the following data: 

• 2017-18 – 2,060 service hours | $28,800 raised 
• 2018-19 – 3,547 service hours | $49,500 raised 
• 2019-20 – 3,244 service hours | $82,486 raised 
• 2020-21 – 406 service hours*  | $51,685 raised* Virtual only due to COVID 
• 2021-22 – 3,380 service hours | $69,601 raised
• 2022-23 – 3,783 service hours | $64,801 raised

• Finished 8^th in the country for Division 1 community service hours for the annual NCAA Helper Helper Teamworks Challenge and is the only school to represent the BIG EAST Conference in the top 25. Providence College Athletics Finishes Eighth in NCAA Division I Community Service – Providence College Athletics (friars.com)

• Every PC student-athlete, representing 19 varsity sports, participated in a range of community service projects throughout the academic year. There were 408 participants out in the community representing the Friars. In total, they raised $64,801 for various charitable organizations for 2022-23. Student-athletes understand giving back to the surrounding community and are committed to demonstrating the Athletic Department’s core values: Valiance, Excellence, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Service (VERITAS).

• A major initiative was our yearly partnership with The DaVinci Center and the Adopt-a-Family Project, which provided over 400 Christmas gifts to 115 children and 40 families.

• The swimming and diving team raised more than $56,000 for Swim Across America’s nationwide virtual swim event this year to benefit cancer research.

• 90 First-Year Student-Athletes supplied 100 holiday cards benefiting hospitalized children across the country and elderly residents surrounding our campus community. This in addition to 100 Easter Bags for the Spring Service Initiative benefiting local youth as well as over 100 hype bags in partnership with Campus Ministry for Special Olympics RI athletes as part of the Friar Edge Student-Athlete Development Program.

• Over 350 Student-Athletes participated in the nightly Good Night Lights initiative outside Hasbro Children’s Hospital to say goodnight and offer encouragement for those battling severe disease.

• PC Athletics partnered with Team IMPACT, a national non-profit organization that matches children facing serious illnesses and disabilities with college athletic teams across the country.  The following programs have a Team IMPACT member: Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball, Women’s Ice Hockey, Men’s Soccer, Women’s Soccer, Men’s and Women’s Swimming/Diving, Lacrosse, and Dance.

The PC community also supported numerous charitable organizations:

• The School of Continuing Education and students in the “Leading Teams” course for Leadership Development majors, organized two fundraising events in April, to raise awareness and financial support for local organizations:

• “Pasta with a Purpose,” a pasta dinner fundraiser and meat raffle for The Holy Family Home, associated with St. Anthony’s Church in North Providence. The event garnered attention and relief to those living with food insecurity, the unhoused, and programs to support child welfare.

• “Steps for Vets,” a walk-a-thon in support of Operation Stand Down, was held at Warwick City Park to raise funds for unhoused veterans.

• For the seventh year in a row, the President’s Standing Committee on Service (“the Service Board”) coordinated a Thanksgiving Drive, in partnership with the Smith Hill CDC and Mary House, the social ministry of St. Patrick’s Parish in Providence.  The Board raised over $6,000 in monetary donations which helped provide a free Thanksgiving meal of a turkey and fixins to 320 local families. These families were also presented with gift cards to local retail stores.

• Thanks to the generosity of the Friar Family (students, faculty, alumni, and families), the Office of Campus Ministry collected over 300 gifts and $1000 worth of gift cards for children at the Smith Hill Early Childhood Development Center and San Miguel School.