Last month, 16 UNMC medical students and 26 middle and high school students made 30 fleece lap cozies and decorated 140 pillowcases with brightly colored fabric markers to donate to children in local hospitals or shelters.
The April 16 volunteer project was part of National Youth Service Day, the world’s largest volunteer service event. The day highlights the contributions young people can make to their communities by designing and leading community service projects.
UNMC Youth Learning Center Director Lisa Jewell, who organized the project, has been involved in volunteering since childhood. “It is important for me to pass that on by encouraging and inspiring the students at the UNMC Youth Learning Center to go out and help others in making the community a better place,” she said.
Students come to the UNMC Youth Learning Center each month to participate in hands-on learning opportunities, in an effort to expose them to health sciences and health careers. The students participate in a different volunteer project each month.
Jewell said National Youth Service Cay was a wonderful opportunity for middle and high school students to work alongside UNMC medical school students and find out what motivated them to apply to medical school, what medical school is like and how young people can prepare for a career in the health sciences.
This year, UNMC Student Senate President Nick Behrendt asked the College of Medicine’s 2006, 2007 and 2008 classes to consider participating in National Youth Service Day. Each class ended up making a financial donation to the project, as well as providing volunteers.
“The response from the medical students was more than we had ever dreamed,” Behrendt said. “As a medical student, an important notion that UNMC instills is that of service and support of the community. Working on the project helped accomplish these ideas,” he said. “It also gave the medical students the opportunity to interact with future health care professionals and answer any questions they may have. The whole day was a huge success.”
In addition to the medical school classes, the College of Medicine Alumni Association, the Department of Pediatrics and Jane Potter, M.D., geriatrics, each made contributions for the Youth Learning Center’s National Youth Service Day project.