Volunteering at Barnard
With so many extracurricular opportunities available at Barnard and Columbia it can be overwhelming trying to find one that is both meaningful and rewarding. Since I was interested in community service, I found that clubs and organizations within Columbia University's Community Impact Network have provided the perfect way for students like me to do work they are passionate about, meet Barnard and Columbia students who share the same interests, and feel more connected to the Morningside Heights neighborhood that we are a part of.
The Columbia Community Impact Organization supports a network of programs within four areas: 1. Youth Programs like Big Sibs and America Reads, 2. Adult Education Programs like High School Equivalency Classes, 3. Emergency Services like Habitat for Humanity and food pantries, and 4. Health Services like Health Education and Outreach. Columbia Community Impact connects student volunteers with existing community agencies that already work to serve their local regions in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and Washington Heights.
As a Barnard Student new to New York, I was looking for ways to spend my time that allowed me to connect with the Morningside Heights and Harlem neighborhoods that surround our university. Specifically, as a student in Barnard’s Urban Teaching Program, I wanted to work in youth educational outreach organizations. I found Columbia Community Impact at the Club Fair my freshman year and since then I have always made Community service and outreach part of my college experience volunteering with Programs both within and outside of Columbia Community Impact’s network.
Last semester, I started one of the most rewarding volunteering experiences at Columbia’s brand new Manhattanville campus at 125th Street. On the first floor of the Zuckerman Institute neuroscience building there is an Education outreach lab that provides a multitude of free STEM Education programs for youth and their families. My favourite outreach program, Saturday Science, is one where volunteer scientists (including undergraduate, graduate, and professional scientists) set up the lab into interactive stations and open the space to the public for the whole afternoon. I’ve helped kids find the heartbeat of microscopic organisms while looking into the labs’ high tech microscopes. I’ve watched them build rainbows of art using the chemistry principles of density and polarity and I’ve worked with them to make their own water-bottle rockets that blast off on the sidewalk!
One of the most rewarding parts of Saturday Science is seeing the kids and their families return each time for more excitement and interactive learning. For me, recognizing names and faces and being able to say “Welcome back!” is such a good feeling that motivates me to keep coming back. I also am inspired to work alongside other members of the Columbia community and to watch lasting partnerships form. Now, the Education Lab in the Manhattanville campus has become the BioBase for an outreach organization called BioBus. Previously, BioBus used to run all of its programming from school buses converted into labs. Having the home base allowed them to connect with the nearby Manhattanville Community Center for STEM afterschool programs and provide hands-on field trips for local K-12 schools.
For me, college has been the perfect time to engage in community service work and due to the huge existing networks of organizations and partnerships within Columbia’s Community Impact Programs, it is really easy to get involved with an organization that interests you. When the inevitable pressures of academics and campus get to you, I have found that the best thing is to engage in the positivity of doing good, meaningful work and seeing good work happen all around you.
-Elizabeth Hodgson
Liz Hodgson (she/her/hers) is a current sophomore at Barnard from Toronto, Canada. She is majoring in Neuroscience and is on Barnard’s Secondary Urban Teaching Track. Her favorite part of campus is the Milstein terraces on a sunny day.