Connect Your Community to Your Campus Life at Metro State.

In the Tivoli Room 243 lays the Center for Urban Connections, a place I walk by every day before grabbing lunch but knew absolutely nothing about. I spoke to Abigail Henderson, a young lady that works in the office and provided me with a lot of great information on the services they offer to Metro students. The Center for Urban Connections is a place students can go when looking for volunteer work, scholarships and ways to get involved in non-profit organizations and events.
The Student Leadership Board is a group of students who organize these types of events and make them accessible for students. Henderson informed me of their “You Can Surf” program, which was approved by Bill Clinton. The program grants volunteer work for students in exchange for possible scholarships. All volunteer work is done through non-profit organizations and students may only receive scholarships for their financial aid or for graduate school. The office provides several large binders full of places to volunteer. They can be linked to the students major, or just for personal interests. 300-650 hours gets you one year of scholarships, and 900 hours gets you 2 years.
They have an awesome program called Project Homeless Connect, sponsored by United Way. Here on campus they set up stations to provide homeless people with a number of things; medical needs, a clothing room, foot washing station and even the Denver Motor Vehicle (DMV) comes out to help the homeless attain their IDs and driver’s licenses. Next week the office will have about 10,000 DPS high school students and/or homeless kids come to the campus to receive information and go through a orientation-like process on how to get scholarships through volunteer work.
The Student Leadership Board has also put together smaller events that are easy for anyone on campus to be a part of. On March 18th they will be holding a toiletries drive, where all the donations will be given to the homeless who are without shampoo, body soap and other basic hygiene products. They are also holding the Alternative Spring Break event, where volunteers come together during Metro’s Spring Break to help African refugees here in Denver learn English and job related skills, instead of taking trips of leisure.
Something that I’m a sure a lot of students have notices around campus this semester is all the green recycling bins around the Tivoli. These were places by the Center of Urban Connections in order to help keep our campus clean and green. While this program is a great resource for students, it services the faculty of Metro State. Teachers use the center as a reference for students when volunteer work is required in the class or for a specific assignment. Many teachers come to the center to find out how they can incorporate volunteer work into their lessons, and students have no problem finding out how to volunteer through their services.