UNC School of Law held its inaugural Law School Day of Service on Monday, Jan. 5, as part of the pilot UNC School of Law Leadership program. Leaders for this project were Sam Williams 3L, AC Locklear 2L and Danielle Bernard 2L.
Students volunteered at The Jackson Center, a public history and community development center located at the gateway to the historic African American Northside neighborhood in Chapel Hill. Students took a walking tour of the neighborhood, which allows visitors to listen to neighborhood residents talk about the area in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Students then transcribed recorded histories from neighborhood residents, picked up trash in the neighborhood and removed leaves. Students helped restock the center’s food bank, called Heavenly Groceries, the only certified food bank in North Carolina that allows its patrons to make their own food selections from the available choices.
“I really enjoyed hearing the stories of the people who lived in this historic black neighborhood in Chapel Hill,” Bernard says. “But most of all I liked providing a little labor to help a neighbor take care of her garden. It was nice to help someone else and not think about law school”
Students also spent part of their day volunteering at The Ronald McDonald House in Chapel Hill, where they helped clean the facility and met with some of the patients.
-January 27, 2015