While the Center for Community Service can help students find volunteer opportunities in Walla Walla to participate in on a consistent basis, they also organize special trips and projects including Summer Community Outreach Excursions (SCORE), Spring Service Trips and Spring Service Day.
In general, first-years participate in SCORE trips before arriving at Whitman, while Spring Service Trips and Spring Service Day are open to all Whitman students. Spring Service Day also encourages participation from Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College.
“All of our trips are centered around service and education . . . we really focus on the direct service,” said Kelsie Butts, the community service coordinator SCORE and Spring Service Trips.
Butts notes that the SCORE program in particular gives volunteers the opportunity to gain an understanding of challenges faced by Walla Walla before arriving on campus.
“[SCORE] is focused on getting to know the Walla Walla community, working on local issues and so really getting into the community,” Butts said.
The Center for Community Service has volunteer opportunities available for students on the local, regional and national levels. However, depending on the project and area they are volunteering in, students may be asked to pay for or fundraise the money needed to cover the cost of participation, food, housing and transportation.
To attend the New Orleans Relief & Rebuilding Spring Service Trip, students are expected to contribute $800 plus the cost of a one-way plane ticket back from the trip. For some students, the Center for Community Service is able to subsidize the cost of this trip by $200 with a scholarship.
Some students question the effectiveness and financial rationale of these programs that send students across the country to volunteer.
“Local volunteering helps your local community, so as long as you’re being productive within your own community then we don’t need to leave a carbon footprint by flying people somewhere else to do a community project. Yes, it’s a great experience, especially for the person going on the trip . . . but from a financial point of view I feel like the resources aren’t really being applied toward what they’re meant to benefit,” said sophomore Bella Zarate, who volunteers by mentoring both children and adults in the Walla Walla community.
In reference to the students who will help build houses on the New Orleans Service Trip, Zarate said,”I feel like the community is being benefited by having a house, and I don’t think necessarily that we need to send Whitman College students on scholarship funds to go and build [that] house.”
Besides environmental and financial concerns associated with transporting students to volunteer project sites, another possible problem is the discontinuity which may occur between their experiences on the trip and the way in which they use those experiences to benefit the Walla Walla community upon their return.
To aid in the transition, the Center for Community Service encourages students to form volunteer groups with the other individuals from their SCOREs and Service Trips for Spring Service Day as a way to reunite the group and continue their volunteer efforts locally.
“When we do have Spring Service Day . . . we try to pair those trips with organizations locally who are doing the same type of work, and then the education students have with those issues translates well to the direct service in Walla Walla,” said senior Shannon Morrissey, a Service Trips intern.
Kelsie Butts, the community service coordinator, notes that among the three participating colleges, between 500 and 600 students sign up to volunteer on Spring Service Day.
“I think one thing that’s tough with a day of service with so many volunteers in this community is that there sometimes just seems like you have too many people trying to find things to do to help. I think it was very project-specific whether people felt like [Spring Service Day] was valuable,” said Morrissey.
Senior Julia Schneider, who has worked as the community service summer intern and has led a SCORE and Spring Service Trip, acknowledges the possible problem of it being difficult to connect international service trips with your local community.
“I think a lot of times when you go places and you have this experience which is really great but only for a short period of time; it can seem really separate from your regular life or really otherizing of ‘that experience’ and ‘those people,'” said Schneider. “I think there’s so much that can be done within your small neighborhood . . . There’s something really great about doing something in your own community and making that as great as it can be and then spreading those ideas outward.”
