Shepard Freshman Resource Center: Building Community: Serving to Learn

 The University of Portland began Building Community: Serving to Learn in 2005 as a way to unite all UP first-year students in a day of service during their first full weekend on campus after Orientation.

The project takes all first year students into the North Portland Community for a half day of service to build camaraderie among the students in a non-traditional setting, to teach practices of sustainability, to build community between the first year students and the neighborhood, and to foster relationships between first-year students and faculty, staff, alumni, and returning students. This is a required event for all first-year students to attend.

In past years, students have logged more than 2,000 hours on this single day working with such community organizations as the Audobon Society, Columbia Land Trust, Columbia Slough, Friends of Terwilliger, Friends of Trees, Friends of Tryon State Park, Forest Park Conservancy, METRO, Johns Community Gardens, New Columbia Neighborhood Association, , Portland Parks & Recreation, Portland Public Schools, Sauvie Island Organics, SOLV, Three Rivers Land Conservancy, and the Tryon Creek Watershed Council.

If you have questions regarding Building Community: Serving to Learn, please email bcsl@up.edu.