On a recent Saturday morning, a group of UNC School of Law students gathered to sweep and mop floors, vacuum and clean dining tables.
It wasn’t in preparation for a party. The volunteers were helping to ready the Chapel Hill Ronald McDonald House to open new rooms after months of construction. The work at the house—which provides lodging, food and other services to families of hospitalized children—was the inaugural project of the UNC Law Community Outreach Program (LCOP).
Through LCOP, students in all classes have opportunities to participate in community projects in order to become involved in service beyond pro bono legal work.
“The program strengthens students’ access to service projects and builds awareness of their community. Our vision through this program is to have a Carolina Law student body that has ethical values, a social justice mindset, and an understanding of the community in which we live, to be fully prepared for future leadership,” 3L research assistant Nihad Mansour says.
She leads the program through the Office of Student Services in collaboration with Assistant Dean for Student Services John Kasprzak ’05.
At the Ronald McDonald House, students interacted with some of the families staying there.
“Something as small as helping keep the place clean is a major burden off of these families when they are occupied with countless hospital visits. The Ronald McDonald House really wants the families to feel like they are at home when they stay there, and being able to contribute to the experience of their stay was a great feeling,” Mansour says.
The LCOP website will be a hub for community service information at Carolina Law, and Mansour expects law school faculty, staff and alumni to participate as the program develops.
The program will feature two community service projects each semester. The next one will be a Stop Hunger Now event in McColl Cafe at Kenan-Flagler Business School on Monday, Nov. 9, to highlight poverty. Undergraduates and students at Carolina Law and Kenan-Flagler will work together to package 10,000 meals. (To volunteer, visit http://goo.gl/forms/o0ro2mzwH3.)
Next semester’s LCOP events will focus on themes related to education and the environment.
LCOP was inspired by Mansour’s involvement last year in the Carolina Law Leadership Development Program, in which she and others created a service-project proposal with goals, initiatives, resources and funding strategies.
“Through the Leadership Development Program, I was given an opportunity to strengthen my confidence and functionality as a leader, which has been one of my most valued law school experiences,” Mansour says.
Another valuable experience for her is LCOP, which has convinced Mansour of how powerful community involvement can be for volunteers and others.
“Participating in the service projects is a way of getting everyone back integrated in the community,” she says. “To volunteer two hours of your time to a place where you impact people in such a simple way is priceless. Everyone takes away something different when they participate, and that is the beauty of community service. If anything, the experience encourages self-reflection, making the stress and difficult workload of law school seem so small.”
-October 19, 2015