STUDENTS GIVE TIME

Get a better life in return

The Dana difference starts early —sometimes at 8 a.m. on a Saturday.

That’s when Dana’s freshmen, many of them not even completely unpacked, headed out to perform community service in Blair.

The community service efforts were held as a part of new student orientation at the Washington County Recycling Center, in different homes of the elderly through the Eastern Nebraska Office on Aging and on campus. Although not mandatory, it was encouraged that Dana’s 145 new students participate. Numbers were also boosted by the participation of upperclassmen involved in the orientation and athletics.

“We wanted to do this while students are settling in,” said Chris Jebsen, dean of students. “We want to set it in their minds that they can do [community service] later on.”

Blocking off an entire morning during the very busy time for incoming freshmen was just the start of a year-long effort to not only get Dana students to participate in service activities, but to get them to take the initiative in planning and leading community efforts.

Volunteering in the community has always been something Dana has encouraged students to do. But with increasing demands on students’ time — including studying, jobs and participation in extracurricular groups such as athletics and drama — community service is no longer viewed as merely a “good act.”

“It’s in the college’s interest to make service opportunities more readily available,” Jebsen said. “They might open the door to something students wouldn’t explore on their own. Students may find something that causes them to rethink what they want to do with their lives.”

Campus Pastor Andrea Ng’weshemi said he believes service is vital to the educational experience Dana commits to by being a faith-based school. Ng’weshemi believes a part of his ministry is to help students discover their talents so they can share them with others.

“We’re training them,” Ng’weshemi said. “We’re growing them for future life in the larger society as responsible citizens. The integration of service learning within campus ministry promotes both the active faith and the discovery of one’s faith through action.”

Ng’weshemi said he hopes to build strong service learning and outreach programs that will allow students to go out into the community and area congregations. “The congregation doesn’t have to be Lutheran,” he said. “It is anyone who will invite us.”

Although Dana is a Lutheran school and almost one-third of its students identify themselves as Lutheran, Ng’weshemi downplays doctrinal differences in the Christian faith in order to focus on creating a Christian community.

Once that Christian community is present, part of the learning experience is to take it beyond the confines of the campus. “We develop this community by participating,” Ng’weshemi said. At first, the focus was to establish a strong ministry foundation on campus.

Now that Ng’weshemi feels students have more of a sense of ownership in the religious life of the campus, it’s time to spread the community they’ve developed.

“We prepare students for service so they know that when they do something they do not need a dollar to feel good.” Ng’weshemi said.
It’s a lesson that Chris Jebsen said is a vital part of Dana’s mission.

“I’d like to get us to the point where students will leave Dana knowing that service learning was part of the education,” he said. “Service is a part of who they are. It’s a part of their life when they leave this place.”

One of the biggest challenges is finding meaty service opportunities where students can feel they accomplished something besides padding their resumes. Jebsen said he hopes groups will start to see Dana as a talent pool for volunteer efforts, ready to serve when called.

The benefits are mutual for both those who receive help and those who give it, Ng’weshemi said. Unfortunately, he believes sometimes youth are not aware of these benefits when they reach college.

“Sometimes it’s a hard lesson to inject into the head of young people,” Ng’weshemi said. “But we go ahead and do it anyway, because we believe it is a good thing for them.”