Shortly after campus starts buzzing again for a new academic year, hundreds of students – along with faculty and staff (and sometimes even alumni and families!) – gather together on a Saturday morning in Lowe Dining Hall before heading out into the community to help local organizations make a difference.

This fall, more than 270 Setonians registered for the day across 22 sites, which spanned from Irwin to Latrobe.

Labor of Love is one of two universal service days for Seton Hill and helps kick off the fall semester while the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and Learning, held annually in February, helps begin the spring semester. Even having a small group of students work with a non-profit organization for a morning can have a great impact.

“We are so very appreciative of the Labor of Love project that SHU does each year,” said Carol Hudock Palcic, executive director of the YWCA. “We rely on the student volunteers to help us with the many tasks that we are not able to. The impact is phenomenal!”

This year five students – along with David Hull, director of Seton Hill’s TRIO Program, and Re’Onna Durham, Griffin Success Program Specialist – went to the YWCA to help with yard work.

“They were able to accomplish so much yard work in a few short hours,” said Palcic. “This work never would have gotten done if it were not for this group.”

“Service has always been a part of life at Seton Hill”

University-wide days of service might be the largest visible way Seton Hill provides assistance, but these two days offer just a small window into the long-standing connections the University has with its surrounding community.

“Service has been central to the mission and identity of Seton Hill University since its founding,” said Casey Bowser, archivist for both the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill and Seton Hill University. “Seton Hill is distinctly service-oriented because of the Sisters of Charity.”

Seton Hill’s namesake, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, was a charter member of the Society for the Relief of Poor Widows with Small Children, considered the first charitable organization managed by women in the United States. The Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill have continued this commitment to the poor, needy, and oppressed throughout western Pennsylvania, across the United States and around the world for more than 150 years. Their mission to serve the poor and disadvantaged will be the theme of this year’s Founders’ Day in March.

“Service has always been a part of life at Seton Hill. It is not a new thing. It touches the heart of the charism of our founders, the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill,” said Sr. Maureen O’Brien, Vice President for Mission and Identity.

“Having a pillar of service as part of our mission involves everyone: faculty, staff and students," O'Brien said. "Service at Seton Hill has always been directed to meet the needs of the time; students are responding to needs of the local community as an extension of the Sisters.”

During World War II, Seton Hill College opened up its fields along Route 130 as war gardens for members of the community to grow their own food during scarce times. Throughout the 1950s, Seton Hill students were heavily engaged in work with the American Red Cross.

Outreach to the community became a primary tenet of Campus Ministry when the department was formalized in the mid-1970s. That decade saw projects dedicated to the United Farm Workers and Project Appalachia, which emphasized education, advocacy, and direct work with poverty-stricken communities in West Virginia.

Operation Christmas Basket, one of Seton Hill’s longest running service projects, began in 1968 as part of Project Hunger, an effort to address the growing reports of the hunger crisis in America and has since evolved to provide funds to support student service travel through Alternative Break Trips. These trips began during the 1990s and were arranged by the Christian Appalachian Project, but have since expanded beyond Appalachia to places like New Orleans and St. Louis. Labor of Love and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and Learning were also added to the calendar before the year 2000.

The students have also stayed close with the nearby Sisters even as the number of them seen daily on campus has diminished. As featured in the last issue of Forward Magazine, connection and service with the Sisters of Charity continues at Caritas Christi in ways big and small.

Service-Learning in the Classroom

Professor of Marketing and Communication Jen Jones, Ph.D., is one of the professors focused on incorporating Seton Hill’s commitment to service into her coursework. Her Corporate Ethics and Social Responsibility course is required for all business majors, and every student, whether in person or online, must complete a significant service-learning project.

Throughout the course, students study responsible business with specific attention to the practices of B Corps, or companies certified by a third party for ethical standards, and fair trade, which ensures that farmers and workers throughout the supply chain are being treated and paid fairly.

The in-person students partner with Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade nonprofit that offers ethically sourced products from international artisans, to host a fair trade market on campus in November and offcampus at the Night Market in downtown Greensburg in April.

Students in the online section have the opportunity to serve a meal in partnership with Maranatha Outreach in downtown Pittsburgh. Seton Hill’s food service provider Aramark donates a full-course hot meal for those in need, and the volunteers set up on the street on a Friday night in November for a Thanksgiving meal and in April for an Easter meal.

Both of the projects have been ongoing for the last decade, and alumni have even returned to serve the downtown meals.

“I’m grateful that each business major gets to experience service and see its connection to business as a force for good, Catholic Social Teaching, and Seton Hill’s mission and history,” said Jones.

Assistant Professor of Communication Catie Clark-Gordon, Ph.D., pairs students directly with local non-profit organizations in her Social Media Strategy class to create strategies that help further their goals.

In the fall semester, the class worked with Central Westmoreland Habitat for Humanity and divided into two teams: one working on a strategy for increasing volunteers and donations for home building and renovations, and the other team working on increasing donations and volunteers with the Restore retail location that supports Habitat for Humanity’s mission.

Clark-Gordon began incorporating service learning into her coursework before joining the faculty at Seton Hill in August 2022. Before her first semester, she scheduled a meeting with Amanda DeWitt, Director of Service Experience, to create a plan for how her social media class could continue and thrive on the Hill with a strong focus on service- and community-engaged learning. Since joining the faculty, her students have worked with six local nonprofit organizations.

“Service-learning, as I integrate it in my course design, has two main values that I think are incredibly important for students,” Clark-Gordon said. “First, it allows students to work with real clients, and provides them with work experience and examples for their professional portfolios and makes them more competitive on the internship and job markets. Second, it creates an opportunity for experiential education that encourages students to be socially responsible and active citizens working in and with members of the community.”

Clark-Gordon notes that students value opportunities to work on projects that both interest them and benefit the community. Her students also appreciate getting to know organizations within the Greensburg community and often choose to volunteer at their non-profit during the course of the semester.

Expanding Student Service-Learning

In the spring of 2024, the University received a NetVUE (Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education) grant of $45,000 from the Council of Independent Colleges to develop a more robust academic service-learning program.

DeWitt will be spearheading the two-year academic development program, which kicked off in May with its first faculty immersion institute. The pillars of the project include summer faculty immersion institutes, discipline-specific professional development, book studies, and course development throughout all five schools of Seton Hill University.

The project continues this semester with the initial cohort of five faculty members – one from each of Seton Hill’s five schools – committed to service-learning professional development in order to design or redesign courses to incorporate service-learning as a tool for vocational discernment.

Members of the first-year cohort include: Dr. Shavonne Arthurs, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice, School of Education and Applied Social Sciences; Dr. Sarah Joiner, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, School of Natural and Health Sciences; Dr. Catie Clark-Gordon, Assistant Professor of Communication, School of Business and Technology; Dr. Jennifer Beasley, Assistant Professor of Art Therapy, School of Visual and Performing Arts; and Dr. Roni Kay O’Dell, Associate Professor of Political Science, School of Humanities.

When DeWitt started as Seton Hill’s Director of Service Experience in the fall of 2021, one of the goals for the position was to expand academic service-learning. Focus on this work continued in the summer of 2023 with her attendance at a two-day faculty immersion institution focused on this work at DePaul University, and she will continue to expand Seton Hill’s focus on academic service-learning by working with the faculty cohorts through the NetVUE grant.

“The tradition and charism of the Sisters of Charity have highlighted the importance of service and community empowerment. Academic community-engaged learning is one way the university is seeking to live into this Setonian mission and to help students to discern their own meaning and contribution to the common good,” said DeWitt.

“Community-engaged learning provides an opportunity for college students and community members to work together to accomplish a community goal or meet a community need,” she noted.

Student Life Fosters Service Opportunities On and Off Campus

It is hard to find a club or organization at Seton Hill that doesn’t have some aspect of service included in its activities. From events and sales that raise funds for specific causes, to coat and food drives, to annual service projects, Setonians are always finding ways to lend a helping hand.

One club that has made a showcase of pivoting to meet needs is Project H.O.P.E. The organization was previously more of a professional organization for social work majors. However, the executive team for the 2023-24 academic year – president Marissa Urbanic, vice president Ben Sanner, treasurer Julianna Gorsuch, secretary Lumen Roach, member at large Gina Veltri and social media manager Kira Claypoole – was determined to expand the club’s reach and have a real impact on the Seton Hill community and on campus. Last year the club expanded to include other majors and collaborated on events with other clubs on campus – all while maintaining traditions such as their annual cookout at Union Mission Homeless Shelter in Latrobe.

In the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024, Project H.O.P.E. hosted a sticker sale for pediatric cancer with the Student and Alum Art Therapy Association (SATA) where they raised $150 for pediatric cancer and hosted a baked goods and sticker sale with the Disney Club that earned $500 for Union Mission. They also worked with Redstone Highlands to provide candy grams for seniors and again worked with SATA to host a paint and sip night at the facility, in addition to other collaborations and projects.

This work led to Project H.O.P.E. receiving the Outstanding Community Impact and Outstanding Student Organization awards at Seton Hill’s annual student Spotlight Awards in May 2024. This year’s executive board – president Nelli Palm, vice president Rachel Cameron, treasurer Julianna Gorsuch, secretary Payton Beattie, member at large Ben Sanner and social media manager Kira Claypoole – is carrying on the legacy of last year’s team, raising around $500 for clean water tanks in Pakistan alongside the Muslim Student Association in the fall 2024 semester.

Other examples of student clubs with a strong core of service include the Go Baby Go! Club – founded by Seton Hill’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program – which provides adaptive ride-on cars for children with disabilities, and Stitch to Serve, whose members craft items to donate to those in need and have worked with the Sisters of Charity at Caritas Christi on various projects.

Service is also a key component of Seton Hill’s athletics programs. Many teams hold annual games that raise money for a cause, such as the baseball team’s VS Cancer event or the volleyball team’s Dig Pink Game. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) has also helped provide several wishes to Make-A-Wish program recipients over the years.

Athletic teams also engage in on-the-ground service, from reading to elementary school students to helping clean up local parks to participating in community awareness walks. In the spring, the football team held its inaugural service week for the team’s captains where the student-athletes spent time serving at various community organizations, including the Knead Community Cafe in New Kensington, a pay-what-you-can restaurant.

Community Partners Value Opportunities to See Students Grow

While many relationships with local non-profits are longstanding, new ones are constantly developing. On an October afternoon in Cecilian Hall, representatives from both longstanding collaborators and other newer associations could be found interacting with students, faculty and staff. As part of the NetVUE grant, Seton Hill invited local non-profits to set up tables in Cecilian Hall for community partner fairs in May and October to give the Seton Hill community the opportunity to connect with local organizations on campus.

Seton Hill volunteers can be found throughout the year at many locations throughout Westmoreland County and beyond. One place where student volunteers can frequently be found is located between the University’s two downtown buildings. Every Thursday evening, Feeding the Spirit distributes a free meal, along with diapers, pet food, paper products and hygiene items to more than 200 people at Otterbein United Methodist Church.

Judy Knapp, vice president of Feeding the Spirit’s board of directors, enjoys getting to know the Seton Hill students who show up to help with the weekly distribution.

“New volunteers appear at the door often with a bit of shyness at first. We welcome them in, explain the program and give them a task… and then another!” she said. “They bring a willingness to help, a kindness in their interactions and lots of positive energy.”

While some students may come for a single week or just a few sessions, others continue to volunteer over months or years.

“The students tell us about their backgrounds, their academic pursuits, their families, their future plans,” Knapp said. “They become an integral part of Feeding the Spirit’s team and we are ever and always grateful for all that they bring.”

Seton Hill has also established a meaningful partnership with the Westmoreland Food Bank. Students contribute countless hours at the Food Bank’s primary location and various pantries throughout Westmoreland County, helping alleviate food insecurity in the region and fostering a spirit of service and community involvement.

Faculty members also play an instrumental role in encouraging and facilitating student volunteer activities, particularly during the holiday season when food needs are at their peak. An annual food drive is held on campus during Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week just before Thanksgiving; the food drive in the fall of 2023 saw 546 pounds of food donated plus a 546-pound anonymous donation match.

“The commitment from Seton Hill students to support this vital resource exemplifies the University’s mission to promote social responsibility and active citizenship,” said Jeff Abramowitz, Director of Employee & Volunteer Engagement.

“The Westmoreland Food Bank and its team greatly appreciate their relationship with Seton Hill, including the students, administration, and faculty. This cooperative approach has led to a growing relationship that provides far-reaching benefits to the people of Westmoreland County,” Abramowitz said.

Other frequent partners include the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Laurel Region, Westmoreland Habitat for Humanity and Restore, and the Blackburn Center.

As Seton Hill works to create a successful future for itself and its students, the University knows that as in the past its success is inextricably linked to the well-being of the surrounding community.

“The work of service, solidarity, and community support is foundational to the Sisters of Charity charism, essential to the mission of Seton Hill University, and will be critically important for cultivating a just and equitable world in 2025 and beyond,” said DeWitt.