Old Westbury, NY - December 18, 2013 - Matching students with potential volunteer placements was the goal as the Community Action, Learning and Leadership program of SUNY College at Old Westbury recently welcomed 20 community organizations to campus to participate in the 6th Annual CALL Partnership Fair.
“The Partnership Fair brings community leaders to campus so that students can learn about possibilities available to them to make an impact,” said Laura Anker, director of the Office of First Year Experience and of the College’s Community Action, Learning and Leadership Program. “The relationships that begin with this fair will grow in the spring into service placements where our students and College can bring to bear their collective power to support our Long Island friends and neighbors.”
Among the organizations participating in the event were Island Harvest, the Westbury School District’s Park Avenue Elementary School, the Grenville Boys and Girls Club, and the Long Island Council of Churches Food Pantry.
Highlighting the 2013 Partnership Fair were remarks by Scott Reich, a local attorney who recently authored “Power of Citizenship: Why John F. Kennedy Matters to a New Generation.”
“JFK’s presidency was about challenging Americans to be good citizens, and that the spirit he aimed to foster can still guide us today,” Reich told the students assembled. “The ‘millennial’ generation can choose to embrace this legacy by behaving in ways that reflect our national values – by recognizing the truth that appears on the Seal of the United States: “E pluribus unum” – out of many, we are one. “
Made possible through support provided by the Amy Hagedorn Fund of the New York Community Trust, SUNY College at Old Westbury’s award-winning Community Action, Learning and Leadership (CALL) Program seeks to affect change both in the local community and within the College’s students themselves. Through CALL, every first-year student is required to participate in a minimum of 50 hours of service at placements that are determined by linked course content and objectives, as well as students’ academic and career interests.
In all, the more than 400 members of this fall’s entering class at SUNY College at Old Westbury will provide more than 20,000 hours of service next spring through placements with human service, healthcare, educational, municipal and other organizations on Long Island and in the metropolitan area.
The work of the students, faculty and staff through this program has for six consecutive years earned Old Westbury a place on the U.S. President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
Located on the historic North Shore of New York’s Long Island, the State University of New York College at Old Westbury is a selective public liberal arts college with more than 4,400 students studying in more than 40 undergraduate degree opportunities in its liberal arts and professional programs and 15 graduate programs in business, education and mental health counseling. On the College’s 604-acre campus, students and faculty participate inan environment that demands academic excellence, fosters intercultural understanding, and endeavors to stimulate a passion for learning and a commitment to building a more just and sustainable world. For more information on the State University of New York College at Old Westbury, visit www.oldwestbury.edu.