An experience with lasting impact<\/p>\n
Experts say volunteer experiences like that have the power to open students\u2019 eyes, as well as shape how they view the world around them.<\/p>\n
Rev. Daniel Joyce, vice president of mission and ministry at Saint Joseph\u2019s University, one of Habitat\u2019s partners, said hands-on service projects can foster a kind of creativity in students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kinds of engagements with Habitat and other organizations, where you\u2019re working with the community and learning from the community, you come back with a much wider perspective on the different angles of the problems and therefore are challenged to be more creative about how solutions really happen in communities,\u201d Joyce said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo folks come back with their own education and formation on being imaginative community partners and imaginative problem solvers,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, students with service experience tend to feel better equipped to find solutions to challenges. According to a Gallup poll<\/a> released in March, 60% of those with service experience said they \u201ccan handle whatever comes their way.\u201d<\/p>\n The same poll found that the majority of young people with service experience felt more prepared for their future careers.<\/p>\n These kinds of service projects can also put students on a path to being \u201cprofessionals with a conscience,\u201d said Tinamarie Stolz-Enr\u00edquez, who teaches a service learning class at St. Joe\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cThat will look different for a doctor or a nurse, or an accountant or someone in business or a social worker, but they\u2019re always putting the dignity of people first, they\u2019re not going to abuse their power, they\u2019re not going to put profits over people, and they\u2019re going to be ethical and just in all the ways that they\u2019re called to be,\u201d Stolz-Enr\u00edquez said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the kind of message that would likely resonate with Pope Leo XIV, who has called caring for and serving others the \u201cthe supreme law\u201d<\/a> of human existence, which he said comes \u201cprior to all society\u2019s rules and gives them meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n