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Rutgers-Camden Civic Scholars work to make the world a better place

When Rutgers University wants to organize a massive community service event through its Camden campus, it turns to its "civic scholars," dozens of undergraduate students who have committed to dedicating a large part of their college lives to civic engagement.

Civic scholar Katherine Nguyen (right) meets with Susan Jones, a nurse manager at Project H.O.P.E. ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer
Civic scholar Katherine Nguyen (right) meets with Susan Jones, a nurse manager at Project H.O.P.E. ALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff PhotographerRead more

When Rutgers University wants to organize a massive community service event through its Camden campus, it turns to its "civic scholars," dozens of undergraduate students who have committed to dedicating a large part of their college lives to civic engagement.

The Rutgers-Camden students put in at least 300 hours each year: working with neighborhood groups, attending conferences and workshops, organizing campuswide days of service during student orientation and Martin Luther King's Birthday.

Started four years ago, the program now is seeing its first participants graduate and reflect on their experiences.

"When we started, we were just a group of 10 and we were told that by the fourth year, this is our goal of how many students we want to have in the program," said Katherine Nguyen, a fourth-year nursing student from Cherry Hill. "But we really had no idea what we were doing."

What they did know was that they weren't interested in being volunteers the way they had been in high school, logging hours doing entry-level grunt work - though they acknowledge that type of manpower is very important.

"Our goal was to not only be able to serve at these sites, but to build mutual partnerships with these multiple community organizations and to see how we could help them improve," said Nguyen, who worked with Project H.O.P.E. - Homeless Outreach Program Enrichment - and became a volunteer coordinator there.

"We wanted to see what needs these organizations had, to see how we could address them," she said.

Participating students receive a $2,000 scholarship from Rutgers-Camden and can qualify for a $1,175 AmeriCorps scholarship, both of which can be renewed. The money is nice, students said, but it alone would not fuel the commitment necessary to fit 300 hours in between classes, work, and studying.

Over time, the program has evolved into its current iteration: Students get a year of exposure, spending a little time with many different groups, before selecting one or two and committing to working heavily with them.

"They have been a quiet force in the city over these past four years . . . they've done such tremendous work," Nyeema Watson, Rutgers-Camden's acting associate chancellor for civic engagement, said Saturday after a banquet for the program.

"They're out there doing the work," she said, "They're not flashy about it. They're not doing it for the accolades, but they are literally in every section of the City of Camden."

Angelica Shaw, 22, of Marlton, who will graduate this week with a psychology degree, dabbled with groups addressing hunger, homelessness, health care. She ended up at Rutgers-Camden's Hill Family Center for College Access, working to boost Camden students' academic aspirations and get them into the best colleges possible.

As Shaw developed curricula for education programs, wrote surveys, and planned workshops, she saw firsthand how children learn, how they handle obstacles, and how they can be pushed to greater heights.

"I spent a lot of time looking into policy and how my students could use that to their advantage . . . kind of bringing the advantage back up to them. Because they were underserved and undermatched, they were going to schools that, frankly, they were way too smart for," Shaw said.

Shaw said she would have looked for volunteer opportunities without the civic scholars program, but doubted she would have found herself in the kind of leadership role she was with the Hill Center.

"I probably wouldn't have done that on my own, just because I'm not always super self-confident in my abilities, but the program definitely fostered and helped to push that confidence in me," Shaw said.

Rutgers-Camden's Office of Civic Engagement, the program's umbrella organization, provides administrative support, but no one tells the students where to go and what to do. Instead, support comes through guidance and advice at meetings; the onus is on the students to figure out their passions and pursue them.

"They provide us with structure when we need to be kicked around a little bit, and they provide us with support when we need it, but they're not stifling," Shaw said. "They allow us to have the freedom that we need to do what we do, as long as we're staying at the same level or better."

Plus, because the program is hosted by a university, the students are civic scholars. Work done in the field is discussed at regular meetings back on campus, supplemented by guest speakers, field trips, workshops, and a for-credit seminar held in the fall.

Shaw, who had applied to Rutgers-Camden as a biomedical engineering major, scrapped her plans to end up in New Brunswick. The civic scholars program had minted a new psychology major (with a sociology minor).

"You can read all you want about theories of motivation and personality, but it's hard to envision it being applied until you can actually see it," Shaw said. "And it just jived perfectly, because I was actually seeing it and it made sense. I understood theories better, because I was able to see it hands-on."

The intense demands have shaped the students' social life: The civic scholars have become close friends outside of the program - some have dated - and as they described their experience, the word that kept coming up was family.

Amy Mallon, 21, a graduating senior from Voorhees, laughed as she remembered coming to Rutgers-Camden as a business marketing major because she had no idea what she wanted to do.

Through the civic scholars program, she worked at the Neighborhood Center, a nonprofit group working with children and sharing food with those who need it.

And lo, a social work major was born. Mallon's staying on campus, entering Rutgers-Camden's master's program in social work this fall, after which she hopes to pursue a master's degree in public health.

At a recent end-of-college event, Mallon was thinking back on her four years as an undergraduate, she said, when she was struck by how deeply the civic scholars program had changed her life.

"I don't really like to believe in destiny or anything like that, but I think this is one of those things that it was supposed to happen for me, so that I could really find what I was supposed to do," Mallon said.

The honors college gave her the civic scholars program, which gave her the Neighborhood Center, which gave her an academic interest, a career, a passion.

"I like to call it my purposes. I feel like I have found my purpose now," she said. "I don't know what I would be doing if I hadn't come here and applied for the program and gotten in."