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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1988)
Students lend helping By Wade See Some students go through college without ever looking up from the pages of their books. Others make it through (barely) without ever sitting down anywhere but the front porches of Northgate. But there is another group. A group of students who care about more than beer and books. These students want to give something of themselves; give something back to the community. They find rewards in the work they do and the people who’s lives are made better. Some folks says those students are getting fewer and fewer. Stan Carpenter, national director of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, says thats not the case. “Everybody’s talking about how kids now days are me-first, ” Carpenter says. “Just hang out with the APO’s for a while. The way they spend their leisure time is helping other people — fixing the problem instead of being a part of it. That’s what Texas A&M is all about and that’s what APO is all about. ” APO is a 300-chapter, national service fraternity dedicated to the three cardinal principles of the Boy Scouts, Leadership, Friendship and Service. He describes the organization as having a traditional fraternity style — brotherhood and fellowship — but at the same time, he says it’s a service organization. “Service is our guiding light,” he says. APO plans its service activities according to what Carpenter describes as the four Cs of service. They serve the campus, the community, their fraternity chapter and the country. Diane Robinson, a senior speech communications major and president of the Texas A&M APO chapter, says the fraternity members must perform at least 20 hours of community service each year to stay active in the fraternity. First year pledges must perform between 50 and 60 hours of service their first semester to become full members. Some members may do more than 100 hours of service each semester. Robinson and Lee Rone, a senior journalism major, served about 170 hours last semester. Almost every Saturday about 75 An APO pledge plays Twister with children in Rudder Tower during Parent’s Night Out, when APO members took children off their par ents’ hands for a while. Photo by Fred Joe P$ge tO/At Ease/Th ursday^ Oct.M988 members participate in a major project. They have about 13 such projects each semester, with several smaller projects on the side. Some of the projects APO takes on are the Muscular Dystrophy Super Dance, visiting nursing homes, helping the Red Cross during emergencies such as Hurricane Gilbert, helping at the Brazos Valley Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center, maintaining a 4.5-mile stretch of Highway 60 by picking up trash and organizing blood drives. Carpenter says Wadley Blood Bank has recently nominated APO for the American Association of Blood Bank’s Presidential Award for their blood- drive work. Robinson says many organizations know about APO and will call them when they have a project in mind, but that doesn’t keep the organization busy enough. “We usually take the initiative and go out and find projects, ” she says. The Student Y, another service club, is the second oldest organization on campus after the Corps of Cadets, president Dave Mendoza says. The Student Y began in 1889 and will be celebrating its centennial next year. Mendoza says the Student Y is committed to serving its membership, the university and the community. He says their primary service is helping children and the elderly and in raising money for local charities. The Student Y sponsors the Big Hug to raise money for a local teen runaway shelter, and it sponsors Hands Across A&M to raise money and food for the Brazos Valley Food Bank. The last Hands Across A&M in April raised 3,000 pounds of food. The Student Y also sponsors Aggie Friends, in which members participate in fun activities with younger, grade- school children; the Bonfire Reload Crew — formerly the Cookie Crew — which provides food and refreshments for people working at Bonfire stack; T- camp, which is an orientation camp for transfer students; Youth Fun day, which is a one day activity for 3rd-, 4th-, and 5th-graders to participate in semi-competitive, fun events; and Food For Thought, which is a member development program where speakers are invited to talk about various topics over dinner at local restaurants. Membership in the Student Y requires one hour a week spent working at the club desk as well as joining a committee for one of the club’s events. Mendoza says after that members can do as much or as little work as they want. Mendoza spends two or three hours a day working for the Student Y. “My main drive is that 1 like to help other people, ” he says. Most club members join because they enjoy helping other people also, he says. hands “They’re not in it for any money or glory,” he says. Mendoza says Student Y membership is up from last year to just over 200. “You can attribute that to more awareness about all the things there are to do on campus,” he says. “A lot of people are involved with student activities because they realize there is a lot more than just sticking their nose in the books. ” Mendoza credits Aggie spirit with keeping student participation high. “Involvement here is very, very high and very motivated,” he says. “I believe Aggies in general just like to help other people and each other. It’s a positive type of peer pressure. ” Charles Cartwright, a junior business major, says he finds camaraderie and satisfaction in community service through the Student Y. “I enjoy the interaction with the other people in the Student Y, ” he says. “I get a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment when the things we do are successful. You get a good feeling out of it.” Robinson says the rewards of community service are numerous as well. She says that when someone asks her what she did this semester, its nice to be able to tell people she did 20 to 150 hours of community service. Robinson says APO is also a fun organization. “It’s really easy to make friends with people when you’re standing next to them all day painting, ” she says. She uses the volunteer work she does as an escape from school; it really helps her get away from studying for a while. Likewise, Mendoza says if he didn’t have the Student Y to work at, he would go crazy. Many students are concerned that volunteer activities will give them too much of a break from studying. Robinson says that it does lower some peoples grades, but that most people can handle it. She says they tell the APO pledges, who must do 50 to 60 hours of community service their first year, that if they are going to fail something, to fail APO. “Grades come first, ” she says. “It just has to be that way. ” Robinson, who worked more than 170 hours of volunteer time last semester, says that she personally gets better grades when she is busy. While these students do service work voluntarily, their rewards are great, both in friends and, occasionally, in money. Extracurricular activities, including community service, play a major role in determining who receives scholarships. They can also affect a scholarship’s monetary value. Jerry Lindsey, scholarship
