Students in Action 

Students in the Leaders in Service program are shown in the room they painted and redecorated at St. Catherine's Center for Children.

ALBANY, N.Y. (Dec. 15, 2017) – The smile on a young boy’s face when he sees his room at a local children’s center made over. The joy in a veteran’s eyes when he opens a holiday card from caring students. A woman who is staying in a homeless shelter, opening a gift box.

These are just a few of the many holiday projects UAlbany students gave their time and energy to this month.

• A dozen students in the Leaders in Service (LIS) program painted and redesigned a room for a young boy and decorated the holiday tree at St. Catherine’s Center for Children before delivering presents for the children who live there. The child had just learned he will be staying at the facility for several years. LIS, run by the Department of Residential Life in the Division of Student Affairs, each year introduces a new group of students to community service.

“We would also like to acknowledge the great leadership of the Leaders in Service Graduate Assistant, Simone Rodriguez, who will graduate from the School of Social Welfare with her MSW in May,” said Debernee Privott, assistant dean for public engagement in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Students created holiday cards to send to the troops and veterans.

• At the Interfaith Center, students with Cornerstone Protestant Campus Ministry assembled gift boxes for Interfaith Partnership for the Homeless. Each box contained warm socks, a knit hat, gloves, an assortment of personal care items and some candy. The boxes were given to the shelter and will be passed along to the 40 full-time residents of the shelter this holiday season.
• Five Quad, the student-run ambulance service, is filling an ambulance through today at 3 p.m. with donations for the Albany City Mission at the Five Quad station, Building A, on Alumni Drive. Bring winter coats, gloves, hats, boots and non-perishable foods to donate.
• At the University Bookstore, students created festive holiday cards to send to the troops overseas and veterans. Cards are being delivered locally to the Albany Stratton VA Medical Center.
• More than 100 students collected toys and handed them out to families at the Creighton Storey Apartments in Albany who could not afford to provide gifts for their children this year.  Three student organizations, the Educational Opportunities Program Student Administrative Council, the Latino Greek Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council collected more than 150 toys for the annual project.   

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