Overview

At Georgetown, community service and volunteerism have long been defining characteristics of students' education and the University's mission. Georgetown embraces and lives out the Catholic, Jesuit ideal of service in its undergraduate, graduate, law and medical schools. Georgetown currently sponsors more than 100 community service initiatives that involve countless students, faculty, staff and alumni, and range from teaching children to offering pro bono legal services and providing health care for the medically underserved.

In 2007, Georgetown University was the fifth largest producer of Peace Corps Volunteers among all private colleges and universities in the country, with 42 Georgetown alumni joining the Peace Corps.

Georgetown University was named to the first annual President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction in 2005-2006 and again in 2006-2007. This honor recognizes Georgetown’s leadership in helping to build a culture of service and civic engagement on campus and across the nation. In 2006, Georgetown was one of nine schools to receive Honor Roll distinction with a "Katrina Compassion Award," recognizing exceptional community service in the area neighborhoods and Gulf Coast communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

As a Catholic, Jesuit university, Georgetown undergraduates have historically chosen service careers in high numbers after graduation; in 2003, according to a voluntary survey of graduating seniors, more than 139 chose jobs in the public sector -- non-profit institutions, volunteer service, education, government service, Jesuit Volunteer Corps and other organizations in addition to the Peace Corps.

Main Campus Service Efforts

Georgetown's Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service spearheads the university's community-outreach efforts. The center centralizes the campus's hands-on community service projects, classroom-based social justice service opportunities, and research efforts geared toward collaborating with and aiding the metropolitan Washington community.

The Center for Social Justice oversees more than 40 student volunteer groups and three staff-run programs. More than 1,400 students are currently involved in weekly service projects in Washington, D.C. Examples of ongoing outreach efforts include:

• Sursum Corda Tutoring and Family Literacy Programs. For over 30 years, Georgetown students have provided tutoring for children in the Sursum Corda housing community in Northwest Washington, D.C. More than 40 Georgetown students tutor at Sursum Corda four nights a week.
• The D.C. Schools Project. This nationally recognized program trains more than 200 Georgetown students each year to spend four to six hours a week teaching immigrant students English and other subjects. In the program's 24-year history, Georgetown volunteers have tutored more than 4,000 area youth, mostly in the Adams-Morgan, Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights and Chinatown communities.
• After School Kids Program (ASK). A collaborative effort between Georgetown University and the D.C. Superior Court to reach out to juvenile offenders through self-esteem building, educational support, and job preparation. Since 1987, ASK coordinators have mentored more than 900 District youth.
• D.C. Reads. As a part of the America Reads initiative, D.C. Reads provides training and support for more than 150 work-study students who tutor at-risk children in several public and Catholic elementary schools and community-based agencies.
• Spring Break in Appalachia. Roughly 100 Georgetown students travel to community service sites in the Appalachian region during spring break each year. Students provide volunteer labor on projects in low-income communities and learn about culture and life in Appalachia.
• U.S./Mexico Border Awareness Experience. Each year, ten students travel to the El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, border for an alternative spring break. There, they study the political and social issues of the United States/Mexico border and learn about immigration, NAFTA, and labor organizations.

Integrating Service and Learning

Georgetown encourages faculty to enhance classroom learning by incorporating community service into their courses through "community-based learning," an academic course-based pedagogy that involves student work with disadvantaged and underserved individuals or groups. In turn, the coursework helps the student volunteers to understand deeper specific societal problems. Classes from recent semesters include "Confronting Hunger and Homelessness in America" and "Civic Engagement and Education." Other efforts in this arena include:

• 4th Credit Option for Social Action. A national model, the 4th Credit Option was one of the first such university programs in the nation when it was founded over 20 years ago. The 4th Credit Option offers undergraduate students the opportunity to earn one extra credit by linking a minimum of 40 hours of community-based work during a semester to a course in which they are enrolled. Each semester, approximately 20 students take part in the 4th Credit Option. Students are expected to develop supplemental course assignments with their faculty members and to participate in seminar groups with other 4th Credit Option students during the semester.
• The Catholic Schools Project. Two English courses taught by Professor John Hirsh provide more than 40 Georgetown students the opportunity to receive training in literacy tutoring and to assist youth in District Catholic schools in developing reading, writing, and language arts.

Investing in D.C. Communities

Over the past several decades, Georgetown has devoted significant resources to aiding and collaborating with District neighborhoods and residents to address a variety of social issues, from education and economic planning to health assistance and child development. Some programs are:

• Partners in Urban Research and Service Learning (PURS). PURS is a collaborative program between Georgetown and the North Capitol, Mt. Pleasant, and Columbia Heights neighborhoods. As Designated Empowerment Zones, these communities have 20 percent or greater of their populations living at or below the poverty line. With the assistance of a $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, PURS established the Georgetown Community Outreach and Partnership Center (GCOPC), which addresses issues such as the reduction of violence and crime among adolescents, the enhancement of planning and community organization, and the development of new neighborhood-based economic opportunities.
• Schiff Scholar Institute of College Preparation. Begun in 1989, the Schiff Scholar Institute of College Preparation picks a group of local seventh graders every six years and offers the students a range of free academic and extra-curricular activities that help them prepare for college. Two groups of nearly 70 students have completed the program since its founding-the first in 1995 and the second in 2001. The 34 recent grads, originally classmates at Ronald H. Brown Middle School in Northeast D.C., will go to such colleges and universities as Georgetown, Barnard, Drexel, Temple, and Hampton.
• City First Bank. In 1995, Georgetown made a founder's investment of $1 million in City First Bank of D.C., which opened in 1999. The bank emphasizes service to low- and moderate-income District neighborhoods. The bank seeks to increase home ownership and establish stable, mixed-income communities, to provide the range of financing needed to upgrade housing stock and commercial centers, and to strengthen the base of local small businesses.
• The Perry School. Two Georgetown programs that support local community development—the Department of Family Medicine and the Child Development Center—recently opened offices at the Perry School Community Services Center in the Northwest, D.C. At the Perry School, Georgetown volunteers address health and nutrition needs and provide child development programs.

Law Center Volunteerism

Many faculty and students at Georgetown University's Law Center participate annually in service activities throughout the city. Some initiatives are:

• This year, Law Center faculty adopted a new pro bono policy this year, setting a goal that each professor provide 50 hours of pro bono legal services per professor per year.
• Clinical Program. The Law Center has the largest, strongest, and most diverse clinical program in the country. The mission of this program is to educate students in the practical art of law and to represent legally under-represented individuals and groups in the D.C. metropolitan area. Students in the clinics represent refugees seeking political asylum, adult and juvenile criminal defendants, victims of gender discrimination, civil rights and environmental groups, housing and community development groups, and individuals threatened with eviction, loss of social security, or loss of other vital benefits.
• The Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS). OPICS offers a variety of programs that encourage students to engage in volunteer and pro bono legal work during their time in school as well as after graduation. In addition, OPICS works with, supports and facilitates the organization of student groups or projects with a public interest focus. Lastly, OPICS acts as a liaison among faculty, staff, students, and the D.C. community on public interest and community service matters.

Health Care for the Medically Underserved

Faculty, staff and students in Georgetown's world-renowned Medical Center volunteer their time and skills to provide a range of health services in the metropolitan area, including medical care, health education, testing and evaluation.

• New Pediatric Mobile Clinic. In June 2001, the university dedicated its second "Georgetown Kids Mobile Clinic," which provides health care to uninsured and under-insured District children—ages infant to 21—in Wards 2 and 6. The first mobile clinic continues to serve children in Wards 7 and 8.
• Medical Student Volunteerism. Students at Georgetown's School of Medicine volunteer places like the Archdiocesan Health Care Network, Christ House, and Zacchaeus Free Medical Clinic. Students help organize programs on AIDS, substance abuse, and blood drives.

International Service

• Jesuit Volunteers Corps International. Georgetown houses the office of Jesuit Volunteers Corps International, the global arm of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, a national and international service opportunities. The Georgetown office coordinates volunteer efforts in countries such as Belize, Nicaragua, Micronesia, Nepal, Peru, Chile, the Marshall Islands, South Africa, and Tanzania. More than 450 college and university graduates serve at various sites in the United States, and more than 70 volunteers in nine different countries. On average, 16 Georgetown students and alumni enter the Jesuit Volunteer Corps each year. Jesuit Volunteers are committed to integrating social justice, spirituality, simple lifestyle and community.