On-Campus Service Opportunities

Community Service Exco Course

Want to feel like there's more to Oberlin than just the College?

Take the Exco!

Description: This course will prepare members of the Oberlin College community to be community service leaders. The course will introduce students to the Oberlin and Lorain County area as well as prepare them to coordinate service opportunities for their peers. This course is a prerequisite for working in the CSRC and/or leading an intramural service team.

To learn more about the experimental college course, come to the Exco Fair at the beginning of the semester or visit http://www.oberlin.edu/stuorg/exco/.http://www.oberlin.edu/csl/csrc/Intramural.jpg

Note: The exco curriculum consists primarily of panels, speakers, and group activities. As a class, students are only required to participate in one or two community service projects. Want to do more community service as a group? Try joining an intramural community service team.

Click here to see a sample syllabus.

Intramural Community Service

Overview
The Intramural Community Service Competition is a chance for students to build community and encourage leadership both on the campus and in the community.

Students in groups of five to seven compete as a team for the most service hours in a semester. Each team has a team leader who has completed the Community Service Exco Course and has demonstrated familiarity with the Oberlin-Lorain area and the CSRC. This leader is responsible for coordinating service opportunities for their team and for reporting their teams community service hours to CSRC officials.

Teams
Each team will consist of 5-7 students one of whom will be a team leader who has been pre-approved to be a team leader before the start of the competition. At the Competition Kickoff, students will fill out team request forms. On this form students can request specific teams. Or they can list their interests and/or schedule needs, and the CSRC will place students in teams that best match their preferences. All the names of the team must be submitted to the CSRC before service begins. Those names submitted are the names of the people who will share in the prize should that team win.

Scoring
Team leaders will periodically collect and report the number of service hours their team has completed. These hours will be verified by the CSRC and entered into the score chart at the BCSL.

While the CSRC encourages group service and community building, service done by an individual team member may count towards the team's hours.

Teams may count service done by non-team members if they were responsible for coordinating those service hours. They must document the names and hours of those doing the service and how the team was responsible for coordinating that service.

As an effort to keep the competition balanced and encourage students who may not be currently affiliated with the BCSL to participate, the CSRC reserves the right to limit the number of Bonner or Community Service Work-Study students on one team and/or the number of Bonner and CSWP hours that can be counted towards the competition. (This will be decided on a case-by-case basis.)

Type of Community Service
Team leaders will work with the CSRC in order to determine the community need and ensure that the service done is beneficial to the community. Our hope is that the majority of the teams’ service will be a response to a community partner’s request for volunteers. Teams may however count their own community service initiatives provided that the community service completed is in accordance with the CSRC’s definition of community service.

Prize
At this time, the CSRC is still deliberating about the specifics of the prize. To be a part of the prize planning committee contact the CSRC.

Join a Team

Look for the Kickoff party in early February. Come meet team leaders, socialize, and sign up to join a team! Date and Place TBA. Contact the CSRC for more details.