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A Small Step Approach: From Random Acts of Kindness to Community Service
By Brenda Husman, Residence Hall Director, Briar Cliff University
I am currently employed at a small private Catholic University that has for many years prided itself on serving. Many programs over the 73 years of our existence have centered on service to others, to the campus, and to the Siouxland community. As a student on campus I had learned first hand the importance of service. Returning to become an employee of the university 5 years ago I was not surprised to find a continued strong emphasis on community service. What I did find to be different was how students interpreted what community service was. It seemed their idea of community service meant volunteering at soup kitchens, picking up garbage from roadside ditches, or responding to a natural disaster. It was easy for many to see such service as too time consuming or something that really didn’t affect them. It wasn’t until after conversations last summer with other professionals in the housing area that I realized what a struggle it is for other campuses to get their students involved in community service projects. What I shared with them was what I call a “small step approach” to community service that has been successful in my residence hall’s incentive program.
The program I devised was initially created to help curb vandalism and develop more pride and leadership within our residence hall. Part of working on pride issues was to try to get students to see beyond themselves and to notice the needs of others within their own floor community. To do this, I borrowed Oprah’s “Random Acts of Kindness” program and began giving points for acts of kindness (community service to their floor). At the end of each week the community with the most overall points as well as the floor community with the most points from Random Acts of Kindness (floor community service) received as special award and a treat. What began to happen was students began seeing ways they could help each other out doing small tasks. Some ways points were being earned included taking out someone else’s garbage when they took out their own, folding someone’s clothes when the dryer was finished, and vacuuming the hallway to be sure their floor was always looking sharp. As the competition between floors increased so did the area for community service. I began getting community service reports that included doing Random Acts of Kindness for students from other floors within our hall and even some from other areas on campus. It wasn’t long before the RA staff began suggesting different ways their floor communities could be of service to the community surrounding our campus. With some creative planning, the RA staff began finding fun activities for their floor to participate in. These included Christmas bell ringing for the Salvation Army, caroling at local nursing homes, baking cookies for a local parish’s shut-ins, and even working at the soup kitchen and picking up trash in ditches!
Helping our students see community on a smaller, more personal, scale first helped them begin to see other’s needs in a much larger arena. By taking some small steps to the goal of involving students in more community service we were able to see and celebrate successes in even the smallest avenues of service to others. Today we are making bigger strides toward community service in our residence hall, on our campus, and within our Siouxland community.
About the Author
Brenda Husman is a 5th year residence hall director at Briar Cliff University. She has a BSW from Briar Cliff University and an MALS from Valparaiso University.