fall 2007 - Seton Hall University

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N E W A R K S E R I E S : P A R T 2 |
Quiet Commitment
STUDENT VOLUNTEERS HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN NEWARK — WITHOUT MAKING A FUSS.
No one is sure why Seton Hall students are flocking
to join the school’s outreach programs in record
numbers. But over the past several years, student
community service hours have risen by close to 8,000
each year to reach nearly 25,000, says Michelle Sheridan,
director of Seton Hall’s Division of Volunteer Efforts
(DOVE). Maybe it’s because outreach programs are more
prevalent at secondary schools these days, she surmises.
Whatever the reason, “there’s a real excitement for service
on campus.”
DOVE dispatches students to more than a dozen
service organizations to assist in activities ranging from
reading to preschool children to assisting homeless young
mothers and pregnant teens to participating in an “adopta-grandparent”
program. The intent is “to respond to any
need in the community,” she says.
To spend a few hours with several of these charitable
organizations is to understand that the need for volunteerism
in the Newark area is as great as the desire to
serve. “It’s a real eye-opener for these kids,” says Vincent
Smith, a retired Wall Street investment banker who helps
run the soup kitchen at St. John’s Roman Catholic Church
in Newark, where DOVE students volunteer.
Volunteers may start out by chopping up 500 pounds
of chicken (or other food) at daybreak in order to serve
some 700 desperately poor clients. This congregation of
the homeless, which has been put out of the shelters at
5 a.m., arrives by midmorning and expects soup promptly
at 11:30 a.m., says Barbara Maran, a former pharmacy
owner, who is in charge of the operation. The sight of
society’s downtrodden eating off paper plates in the
church’s parking lot can be discomfiting. “But you’ve got
to hand it to these kids,” says Smith. “One of them recently
said, ‘Do you mind if I come back and bring my sister?’ ”
Hope Undergirds Great Societies (HUGS), another
organization served by Seton Hall students, meets twice
weekly to mentor middle-school students at Newark’s
Sacred Heart School. Here, the interaction goes beyond
providing sustenance to fostering deep emotional bonds.
As Cathy Martin, Ph.D., a member of the HUGS board
of directors, says of the program, “We understand the
benefit middle-school children derive from having an
adult in their life — someone who cares about them but
doesn’t have to.”
“There’s a joyful presence when the Seton Hall students
arrive,” Martin says. “Beforehand, they all just sit outside
waiting eagerly, eagerly. And the smiles on their faces work
both ways.” One Seton Hall student who will continue
smiling is Erica Salerno ’07. Even though she graduated
last spring and will attend the University’s School of Law,
Salerno will still take time out for HUGS mentoring. Why?
“I remember wishing I had someone like that,” she says
of a role she defines as being “someone who is not their
parent, but who cares about them and is willing to listen.”
Listening is also the main
work of volunteers for the English
as a Second Language (ESL)
program, taught without charge
to area residents twice weekly
in the basement of Boland Hall.
EXCITEMENT FOR SERVICE:
Record numbers of Seton Hall students
are joining the school’s outreach
programs, helping in soup kitchens,
mentoring middle-schoolers, teaching
English as a second language and
many other endeavors. Photos courtesy
of Division of Volunteer Efforts.