The lights are dim and the smell is dank, but she was assured that the food is fresh. "What am I doing here?" she thinks. The instructions for the day are to take the barrel of dried black-eyed peas and parcel it out into 1 quart plastic ziploc baggies to be divided among the separate soup kitchens around town. The sign outside says "Capitol Area Food Bank," but the place is affectionately referred to as "Food Central."

After the first hour of scooping and zipping, she begins to realize what hard work it is that she and her fellow volunteers are actually contributing. "If not for me, who would be doing this job?" Soon her mind begins to wander. If she closes her eyes, she can imagine what it will smell like when the beans are simmering over a hot stove in one of the capitol area soup kitchens. "This could be someone’s first cooked meal in weeks and I’m making it possible." She tries to remember what she was doing last week at this time.

One of her fellow volunteers interrupts her thoughts with a nudge for her to hand over another handful of empty bags. As the barrel bottom becomes bare and the bags pile up, her service is finished. What now?

* * * * *

According to AustinCitySearch.com, "the Capital Area Food Bank is a nonprofit clearinghouse that provides food and grocery products for more than 270 service agencies in 21 Central Texas counties. The Food Bank has distributed more than 50 million pounds of food, or 40 million meals, since it was founded in 1981."

* * * * *

"I want find a way to reach the people that I advise in a way that is life altering. Maybe they won’t choose service as a career path--that’s not the point--but at least it can help bring to light the career path that would satisfy them most." Annette Coussan is an academic advisor for the University of Texas’ College of Liberal Arts. This college is the holding pin for all of UT’s undeclared majors before they make a commitment to the college of their choosing.

Annette expressed that she "meet[s] so many students with no focus, no hope. They don’t even know what it is that they want to know." Many of the undeclared students she sees have absolutely no ambition. They have trouble seeing how their university education is going to teach them anything that they need to know about the real world. On the other end of the spectrum are people with too many notions of what kind of educational experience they are looking for. They are swamped with proposals for their future and the thought of choosing one to focus on seems insurmountable.

Annette’s challenge is to bring them all to an understanding about what would please them personally as a profession. In the search for the golden key to unlock the potential hidden in the hesitant minds of these undergraduates, she stumbled upon an innovative idea that is sweeping the nation. She would include one of her own life’s passions within the context of her advisory meetings: community service. Since the conception of this inspiration, Annette has taken major steps to reform advising strategies. She has also implemented an entirely new program for the College of Liberal Arts, which allows students the opportunity to actively participate in the world around them through civic engagement. Her ideas are sparking change in the shape of the college as a whole.

* * * * *

"The very first time I remember serving my community was when I was 7 years old with my cousin Stephanie and her grandmother," Annette says as she sinks back into her comfy old sofa. "We went to a nursing home; it freaked me out. The only old people I knew were my grandmother and Steph’s grandmother. I didn’t understand why these people looked so sick." The people in the nursing home were the indigent elderly with no families to take care of them. A church supports it, so funds are tight. The first few times she went were sad. She just pretty much did as she was told, nothing more, nothing less, and left as soon as possible.

The visits continued for five years. She eventually built friendships with many of the people. As the visits flew by, she knew she needed the ability to remove herself from her own tumultuous life and just be in the moment with the people. She began to have a lot more one-on-one interactions with the residents. "This one man wrote me letters all the time. He was my first pen pal. I was so shocked when he died. I was even too young to attend the funeral."

Soon she learned to stop focusing on the sadness. She learned to relate to just visiting with them and getting past their illnesses and age. "Our visits became a steady ritual that they could count on. Stability is something they cherished." They would dance, sing and play cards with the residents. "Our favorite thing to do was give the women makeovers. We would do their hair and makeup; give them massages, the whole nine yards. They just ate it up. They felt so special and we had a blast." There were also certain times set up for Bingo. After dressing up a few residents for the big night, Annette and Stephanie loved to be the callers. "We just figured everyone likes to be entertained every now and then, no matter who you are. A lot of people make negative assumptions about the elderly. Working with them moves you past the assumptions. I feel fortunate."

* * * * *

At about age 18 or 19 Annette met and made friends with Jonathan. He regularly volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. She had heard about the program and decided to try to offer her help. "I figured I was just going to go hammer some nails for some poor people. But once I got there, I saw that the people who were going to live there were actually out there working too." It made it feel a lot less like charity for her. It has always made her feel uncomfortable to do something under the notion that the people she is engaged with are incapable of helping themselves. "You don’t want to make them feel pitiable. Just because they may not have funds, they still have pride." Habitat felt more like cooperation with her community than charity.

Annette’s set task on her first excursion was literally moving boards from one pile of lumber to another and measuring them. Being there taught her a lot about how service actually works, about what makes it tick. Habitat is a nonprofit organization that provides opportunities for people, not a hand out. "I discovered that volunteerism is not just about charity. Nonprofits are just like corporations, except that they find alternative ways of making a profit and still provide a service for people."

* * * * *

"The advisees sign up for the service projects on their own free will. They are looking for a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon, not the answers to the meaning of life… When we interview them afterwards a typical response is that they don’t think this afternoon has really had anything to do with academic advising, but that ‘whatever I do in life, I want to help people.’ If you ask me, that echoes of incredible progress. We’ve motivated them towards a particular future even if they don’t realize it yet."

* * * * *

It was Spring Break and Annette was headed out to Ship Rock, New Mexico. It is a women’s shelter on a Navajo Reservation. It is home to many women and children who have been taken away from abusive situations and sent to this safe haven. She was to chaperone a group of her students, who were spending their vacation volunteering to help renovate the decaying refuge. She expected to accomplish the normal chores such as: painting the interior, possibly repairing the roof, building vegetable gardens, or anything else they would request of them. She would soon receive and learn much more than she dreamed she could ever teach or give.

The first day they were there, they were allowed to just meander liberally around the reservation to get a feel for their surroundings. Their work to repair the building would begin the subsequent day. It turned out that an average day’s physical task throughout the trip was different than she expected. An indicative example of a day’s physical work was to have 12 volunteers paint a 10’ X 10’ room which could be completed by 2 people in a few hours.

She soon found out that the Navajo people had a plethora of other things in mind with which to fill their days. "They brought in people from all over the village to teach us things. We talked with language teachers, dancers, musicians, and people who were skilled in native Navajo crafts such as traditional jewelry. Any time the volunteers were not working, it was clear that we could just ask questions about whatever we wanted. We asked what it is like to have kids grow up and not want to be on the reservation and move away. We asked questions about their mythology and beliefs--anything we wanted. They all seemed to know so much about their traditions and heritage and ancestry."

Their most profound experience, however, was the sweat lodge. They were taken up into the mountains on a requisite 6-mile hike. As they collected the sticks and larger lumber, proper rituals had to be followed. Before taking a branch from a tree, one must ask for permission from the tree. This is the Navajo way of connecting with nature and being responsible for their actions. They then hiked home and built the structure. The materials transform into a spiritual dwelling, a sweat lodge.

At the shelter, the sweat lodge is used as a treatment. It is a way of rehabilitating the perpetrators of violence against women and children. "When you have a sweat lodge experience, it is like a cycle, a rebirth." While inside, you harmoniously meditate on three things. The first round of singing is dedicated to presence: who you are, where you are from. You meditate on just being there. The second round is for petitions: whatever you want to pray for at the moment. The last round is to pray for all the people you love, your family.

"So we got to experience a really intimate part of the shelter. It is a deep tradition, but it is also part of how people heal. You really do feel reborn. You went in there, you made reparations, you piece yourself together and you came out a new woman. I think it was a main reason why they wanted us to come at all. You experience it; you see how important it is to Navajo culture and then maybe bring it back to your own culture."

* * * * *

"Studying in the university teaches you about the global economy in a broad sense. It’s hard to see how you can effect something so big." Civic engagement allows you to see how you impact the world by affecting your immediate community. You help people in your community and you see the effect. "You feel like you have purpose. Then when you help people in your community, they can, in turn, enhanced in all aspects of their life. They have more opportunities to invest back into the community by buying homes or whatever and then that helps everyone."

Part of getting an education is learning how to be responsible. Community service also helps students see how to use classroom skills from their psychology, anthropology, sociology or other classes in order to do constructive things for their world. You also learn things that you would not necessarily expect, like resourcefulness. "You may show up to a site where you are asked to paint a house by noon. Well you have ten people, but only two paintbrushes. What are you going to do? You have to learn to work with what you have. You learn to use your people skills since they’re all you can count on."

* * * * *

"Keep Austin Beautiful," sounds easy enough, right? This project is work to protect the watershed. Anything you dump down a storm drain runs directly into the creeks of Austin. The teaming life in our waterways is fragile and vulnerable. A group of predominantly environmental-minded students signs up to do what they can to prevent any further damage. Once they arrive, they are handed stickers bearing a warning label. They are dispatched into Austin to mark each drain with an urgent plea for "No Dumping, Keep Austin Beautiful." The day is long, hot and strenuous, getting from one drain to the next primarily on foot. The students return from their arduous adventure sun burnt, weary and more than ready for the pizza party awaiting them.

* * * * *

As they shared their experiences, they began to see a common thread in their day’s work. They had all made impacts on real lives. Annette’s goal was successful. Many people found that their calling is to work with people. Some discovered what they did not want to do in life, which is equally important. "Our goal was to establish a safe place for focusing on the civic responsibility and engagement of the university student."

* * * * *

Back in her office, Annette’s thoughts are deep into her journaling of the day’s events. Today’s massive project has been many years in the making. This is the largest event of its kind for the entire year. A few of her own students were present today and she is thinking of them individually. Was there a spark in someone’s eye? Even if she does not admit it, every day is a service project for Annette. Through her unique brand of guidance, her advisees move a step closer to the focused plan of action essential to obtaining a degree. At the same time, they are developing an irreplaceable sense of civic responsibility and connectedness to their world. She has found a way to reach the people that she advises in a way that is life altering.

This paper speaks to an issue that is close to home for me. I did a lot of volunteering in high school, yet I somehow lost touch with it at UT my freshman year of college (I was in the Natural Sciences College). I was excited to revisit the issue and I think that it shines through in the vivid descriptions in the narratives that are sprinkled throughout the piece. I wanted to give the reader a real sense of what it is like to be inside civic engagement.

I enjoyed the writing of this piece much more than I had ever thought. I was terrified to even begin the process. I am glad I have made it though successfully. This piece shows a lot of growth from my first article and that is a great feeling. I hope it is an enjoyable piece to experience.