Friday, August 20, 2010, at approximately 1:30 p.m., I, strolled down 10th Street with 10 other students towards the Real Crisis Intervention Center. This short walk may not seem significant to an outsider, but for us, it was the beginning of a new part of our lives. We were embarking on a journey that in some sense we had been preparing for over the past 12 years– college. But not only were we college students, we were also EC Scholars. Keep in mind, this was mere hours after our parents had left us in the unfamiliar residence hall and the 11 of us had only met about an hour before this walk took place. Interestingly enough, the activity that was planned for us was service work. Our first real interaction with one another as independent college students was a service project! What an awesome message to instill in students.
East Carolina University encourages students to take part in the Greenville community in many ways. Part of ECU’s mission statement explains that the university’s goal is to positively impact eastern North Carolina by training students and sending them back into the community. The fact that a service project was the first activity that I participated in as an ECU student really put into perspective what would be expected of me as an EC Scholar. It set the standard very high and it showed us the community is as much a part of learning as the classroom.
I decided not to have a job during my first semester freshman year so that I could figure things out by making friends, learning the campus, etc. I ended up having a lot of free time on my hands, so I decided to start volunteering. I volunteered a little in high school with certain organizations, but I never had the chance to work with organizations in fields that I’m actually interested in. That’s why I started volunteering for Campus Recreation and Wellness and the Pitt County Animal Shelter.