Volunteerism is woven into the fabric of SMU, where students are required to complete 15 hours of community service before graduation.
Students are contributing to the community year-round through Engage Dallas, which was founded in 2019. “We’re in Dallas, so we serve Dallas. Students living here on campus get to serve alongside the people they are doing life with,” said Kallie Terrana, SMU Associate Director for High-Impact Practices. “It’s working service into your everyday rhythm of life and investing in your own neighborhood.”
Engage Dallas’ student directors work with about 35 local nonprofits to identify project needs, some of which are funded by grants the SMU service program receives.
Its beneficiaries include Senior Source, which has a mission of enriching the lives of area older adults. “Two years ago, Senior Source said, ‘We have this wall outside and we’d really love some kind of mural,’” Terrana said. “Our student director organized the whole thing. She hired a student artist, ordered all the supplies and the students created the mural. Then they threw a block party afterwards for all the (seniors) to come out and see the wall.”
Engage Dallas students have utilized grant funding for projects such as the creation of shelving units stocked with school supplies and STEM kits for a community center and a kitchen upgrade at Brother Bill’s Helping Hand, a nonprofit that provides food, healthcare, and educational programming to needy North Texans.
The program takes students off campus to places where their help is most needed. Sometimes, buses are provided; at other times, student directors arrange carpools.
Each fall, SMU students can participate in #1Day4Dallas, Engage Dallas’ annual service initiative. The program sends students to local nonprofit partners to complete community-requested projects, which vary yearly and have included volunteering at community gardens, community centers, and food pantries, Terrana said.
“(Engage Dallas) gives students a lot of exposure and perspective,” she said. “Sometimes, it makes them uncomfortable, which I think is good for their growth. Sometimes, they are working hard physically and sometimes they’re stretched socially or emotionally.”
Terrana said most Engage Dallas students are freshmen and sophomores, but there are also transfer student participants and upperclassmen who procrastinated meeting their service hour requirements.
“This gives students a really great opportunity to get out of their campus bubble and experience the whole city of Dallas. There is so much culture and history — for better, for worse — for them to learn about,” Terrana said. “My student directors that I oversee speak to this experience as something that has been so meaningful, where they’ve grown a lot as a leader and also in understanding what it looks like to serve and help people with dignity and respect.”
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