Olin students embrace volunteerism
Youths are urged to assist others
While their classmates are practicing soccer or at play dates, budding engineers at Needham's Hillside Elementary School are learning how to build bridges and make batteries using lemons.
Student volunteers from the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering help the fourth- and fifth-graders unlock such mysteries as how planes fly and how citric acid can produce electricity.
"It's enjoyable to be able to condense that knowledge into something that's easy for them to understand," said Amanda Blackwood, a sophomore at Olin who launched the project last year. "It's fun to watch when kids understand something and when they really get it."
The Hillside project is one of several that Olin students participate in through a program called SERV (Support, Encourage, and Recognize Volunteerism). Volunteering isn't a graduation requirement, but college administrators leave Friday afternoons open for students to participate in activities ranging from computer training to helping at Habitat for Humanity.
When Olin opened two years ago, it was the first engineering college to do so in the Boston area in a half-century. The 75 students in the college's first class were drawn not only by four-year scholarships to cover tuition, room, and board, but also by the chance to build a school from the ground up. Administrators involved students in everything from designing curriculum to programs that would shape the campus social scene.
SERV adviser Ellen Cooney touts the program as a way for students to cultivate teamwork and leadership skills.
"I think they find it a nice connection to the world outside of Olin," she said. "There was a feeling from the very beginning, since we were the recipient of major philanthropy, that philanthropy and volunteerism should be a major part of college life here."
The F.W. Olin Foundation, named for the noted engineer and entrepreneur, has given approximately $400 million in grants to the college.
In addition to the Hillside project, Olin students apply their engineering savvy to NOTE, the Needham-Olin Technology Exchange. They donate refurbished computers to low-income families, and in a related project, Computing Opportunities for Disabled Adults, they teach computer skills to Charles River Arc clients.
Sophomore Jon Chambers of Easton, who participates in the technology exchange, said the students update hardware and software so that the computers are nearly as good as new.
Chambers, who was in preschool when his family bought its first computer, sees the program as a way to bridge the "digital divide" between those who can and cannot afford computers.
"I'm just very thrilled to have an opportunity to give back to the community," said Chambers. "What we can do is give families who wouldn't have an opportunity otherwise to learn about computers early on, to not be afraid of technology."
For donating computers, visit volunteer.olin.edu/note/ 