SKC Students Step Up to Meet the Needs of their Community

The Campus Corps program at Salish Kootenai College has had a busy semester engaging in a wide variety of service initiatives to benefit their local community of Pablo, MT. As the campus does not have a Corps leader this year to serve as a resource for setting up projects and directing member efforts, students have impressively taken it upon themselves to step up as leaders working with their dedicated team of volunteers to best be of service to their community. The level of success that they have attained serves as a testament to the capable student members of SKC, as well as to the leadership provided by their devoted coordinator, Debbie Bell. 

Affiliated with the college's Nursing Department, the Campus Corps program at SKC primarily focuses on meeting the local community's need for improved health services, and with a team of members currently pursuing degrees in the nursing profession they have been able to utilize their specialized knowledge and skills in their service work.  Student volunteers have been a part of a number of valuable projects thus far this year, such as the YMCA Senior health fair during which volunteers met with local seniors and high school students to educate them about health issues as well as to share with them the mission of the Campus Corps program. Additionally, members served at the Pablo Thanksgiving Harvest Dinner where they helped carve a grand total of thirty turkeys to feed the local community members that attended the event! One member, Mark, shared that he especially enjoyed this project in that it succeeded in bringing together the local community and provided him an opportunity to interact with the local Native Kootenai population who maintain a strong cultural presence in the region.  Furthermore, the SKC Campus Corps team honored World AIDS Day on December 1st by arranging to have all members attend the basic training for becoming certified as an HIV/AIDS counselor.  Their team also participated in the campus wide event which aimed to raise community awareness about this epidemic as well as to promote HIV testing. 

With things wrapping up for the fall semester, the Campus Corps team is already looking ahead to spring and have set some pretty ambitious goals for the remainder of their service year.  Barrett Campbell, one of the students that has admirably stepped up as a leader amongst her peers, shared with me some of these initiatives which include helping organize a children's health fair, hosting a 5-K run to raise money and awareness for health promotion initiatives going on in Pablo, and advocating for healthier options in their campus cafeteria. Barrett shares that she has "been so proud to see the initiative that members have taken to go out into the community and use the skills that have been learned in the classroom for the ultimate purpose of working for the betterment of their local communities". 

The Campus Corps program is lucky to have such a self-motivated and dedicated group of members present on the SKC campus and we have been so impressed by the strides that they have made thus far in providing meaningful service to their local community.  I have personally been inspired by this passionate group of individuals and eagerly looking forward to seeing what they will accomplish in the following months!