All News

Anyone who has participated in one of Hamilton Association for Volunteering Outreach and Charity (HAVOC) days of service knows that the adage “the early bird catches the worm” readily applies to the sign-up process. By 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10, volunteers had already begun lining up at tables in the Fillius Events Barn, eager to match themselves with the sites of their choices for HAVOC’s annual Make a Difference Day.

It was an anniversary of sorts. To COOP director Amy James, 2011 marks the year that every class of Hamilton students has participated in Hamilton Serves. The Orientation program began in 2008 and takes the students to volunteer at local non-profit agencies for the morning before classes start.

The fourth annual Hamilton Serves took place on Wednesday, Aug. 24, with the entire first-year class and new transfer students going out to volunteer at 61 community organizations. Amy James, COOP director, noted this year was a milestone as now “every student on campus will have gone through the program.”

Hamilton College will celebrate the legacy of labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez with volunteer projects and campus events from March 30 through April 2. Chavez led the non-violent movement for farmworkers’ rights, a movement that extended beyond the fields and into cities and towns across the nation, and helped found the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW).

Reading is an essential skill that most experts agree is developed at a very early stage in a child’s education. Yet not all students acquire this vital skill at the same rate, and many need extra help to become fluid readers. To aid some of these students, Hamilton recently began a new community outreach program at Kernan Elementary School in Utica to help second-graders  improve their reading abilities.

On an Alternative Spring Break trip last year, Alysha Banerji ’11 was working with first-graders at a school in North Carolina when one of them proclaimed that his cat had just birthed kittens. The boy asked if Banerji wanted one, but when she told him that pets weren’t allowed in college dorms, he exclaimed, “I want to go to college!”

Hamilton students have the opportunity to establish meaningful relationships with local nonprofit organizations beginning in their first semester of college through a pilot program operated by the Hamilton Community Opportunity and Outreach Project (COOP).

During the 2009-2010 academic year, close to 500 Hamilton students and employees contributed more than 12,000 community service hours in local and remote communities.

While many undergraduates head home or to balmy beach resorts to rest up after grueling midterms, 98 Hamilton students will drive south to volunteer at nonprofit organizations in nine cities during Spring Break, March 13-28. This year marks Hamilton's 17th Alternative Spring Break (ASB), an annual volunteer venture that consists of nine different community service trips to non-profit organizations in the south.

The Corporation for National and Community Service named Hamilton as one of the colleges included on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for exemplary service efforts and service to America’s communities. The announcement was made on Feb. 25.