Engagement rooted in UBalt bolsters college experience
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When she started as a student, Elizabeth Ogun recognized quickly that there were many students at The University of Baltimore who wanted to get more involved in community service. And they all had a common question: how?
Ogun accepted an offer that the University makes to every student—she created a new organization, one that could connect students that wanted to give back to the city with the existing local groups that needed their support. She called it Impact Baltimore.
“Our goal or mission is to galvanize students to be more actively involved in their community,” said Ogun, a B.A. in Policy, Politics and International Affairs student. “We have skills and talents that our community around us needs. So, we're trying to make impact beyond the four walls of campus.”
Unique as it is, Impact Baltimore is just one of several student groups at UBalt that builds programming around community, service and engagement. The University’s chapters of the National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) and Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK) honors societies are also mission focused.
A concept ingrained in UBalt’s history is that it is a university for Baltimore, meaning the idea of service and service-learning are woven into its classes, events and clubs. That’s a response to what students signal they want from the University, explained Anthony Butler, director of the Henry and Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Center for Student Engagement and Inclusion.
“Our students bring a remarkable amount of experience in life, in the world and in their careers. That shapes their engagement,” he said. “Often the most busy, active and committed students still dig deeper to find greater ways to engage. This shows up in campus organizations, internships, and community engagement, and countless other ways. I am impressed by how deeply our students care about this campus and their community—and I think that engagement gives them invaluable experience as scholars and professionals.”
UBalt’s efforts in student engagement are apparent beyond the campus and city. The University ranked in the top 20 percent nationally for service, according to Washington Monthly’s 2023 College Guide and Rankings. This recognition was based, in part, on UBalt’s commitment to voter engagement and AmeriCorps VISTA Incentive Awards, which cut costs of study for students interested in a career in public or nonprofit service.
The quintessential college experience
Alicia Ryan, a B.A. in Policy, Politics and International Affairs student and president of the University’s chapter of ODK, a national honors society, said she’s looking to do more community service projects, on campus and city wide, as she works to grow the program. Service is one of the five pillars of excellence on which the group is founded.
One of the group’s longest standing efforts has been to maintain the 9/11 memorial garden on Gordon Plaza. This semester, the group is running a drive for the Campus Pantry. Her goal is to get the various student groups on campus to engage in a friendly competition to maximize the amount of donations. Looking ahead, Ryan wants the ODK chapter to partner with a local elementary school to offer book readings, which connects two pillars: academics and service.
All of these experiences are what Ryan wanted to get out of her time in college and she’s grateful to be involved on campus.
“I did not go to college straight out of high school. I became a nanny, and I actually went abroad for a little bit, so I never had that traditional college experience,” Ryan said. “One thing I’ve heard from people who are so in similar positions to me is that the quintessential college experience is to be part of an organization, to make friends, to network, to meet like-minded, goal-oriented, driven people. It helps you to meet people.”
A supportive community
When Diana Brown first came to UBalt, she was a real estate agent looking to hone her leadership skills before opening her own brokerage. It wasn’t long before she joined UBalt’s NSLS chapter. Soon after that, she was leading it.
“When I first started out, I didn't really know exactly what my purpose was going to be,” Brown, a B.S. in Business Administration student, said. “Being in NSLS and collaborating with other leaders, I have a view, a clear vision of my purpose. And my purpose is to build up communities and families.”
The NSLS is the largest honors society program at UBalt. Its core purposes are right in the name—leadership and success.
NSLS has been part of the University’s student groups since 2015. Like ODK, it invites students that maintain a particular GPA to join and has an induction ceremony, but it doesn’t have a cap on the number of students invited to join. Since 2015, Brown said UBalt’s chapter has inducted more than 3,000 members and has around 1,000 currently, making it the largest group on campus.
Brown said NSLS has given her and the other student members a chance to meet innovative thinkers and collaborate with organizations at UBalt and beyond. That, in turn, has helped her grow and build skills she needs to help others around her grow as well.
Brown has found she’s in good company as a student leader at UBalt where students are willing to share resources, collaborate across groups, and even join more than one group so they can build connections and have a greater impact. The tight-knit community proves over and again its willing to help and work with each other, she said.
Ogun echoed the sentiment. She said she has found the support and guidance she needed across the University.
“Whenever I share about what I'm doing, students, faculty staff, they're like, we would love to help in any way we can,” she said.
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