The 2020-2021 Civic House program may look different than in years past, but its core dedication to serving the community remains unchanged.
January 18 marked the University’s 24th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and Leadership, an event which garnered almost 300 volunteers from the GW community to spend the day immersed in service projects throughout the Washington, D.C., area. This year’s event was run entirely virtually by the Nashman Center, but that didn’t stop students from engaging with their partners and learning more about their D.C. community, students said.
In total, the Civic House cohort contributed about 20 service hours at one of 21 different site projects like workshops with the Capital Area Food Bank, transcribing documents for the Smithsonian Museum’s Transcription Center and assisting with Girls Run D.C.
Freshman Dasia Bandy, an International Affairs major at the Elliott School for International Affairs, said the event was “terrific” and led to good conversations at home about her service project and the keynote speaker. Bandy, who volunteered at a Girls on the Run-DC Phonebanking event, said she learned more about the impact of phone banking.
“I learned how one call can make a BIG difference.” Bandy said. “It has inspired and motivated me to engage in phone banking more often and to hopefully create and lead a phone banking initiative within my community to tackle racial injustices.”
Students began their day gathered on Zoom with each other to recap the fall semester and prepare for the upcoming spring. As they began to flesh out ideas and think about their civic house spring project, students seemed excited to get the ball rolling.
Afterward, the cohort had an opportunity to attend MLK Day of Service’s keynote speaker event, featuring Clint Smith, a writer with the Atlantic. Smith, the author of Counting Descent and How the Word Is Passed, spoke about his activism and story.
Smith’s message rang deeply with many students in attendance. Jaida Rogers, an international affairs major in the Elliott school, said his message resonated “deeply” with her.
“I resonated deeply with everything the keynote speaker spoke about and presented,” Rogers said. “I think this event was a great way to commemorate MLK Day.”
Rohit Kotha, a biology and environmental science major at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, could not have agreed more.
“I really enjoyed listening to the keynote address with speaker Clint Smith,” Kotha said. “His words resonated with me and were important towards reminding us of the problems affecting people of color in our country.”
