Twenty student groups compose the Community Service Commission at UCLA, an umbrella organization that performs outreach to underprivileged Los Angeles communities.
The Commission, a division of undergraduate student government, was started in 1965 and is the largest student-run commission in the nation, said Valerie Sien, the CSC’s commissioner.
“The majority of our projects are tutoring or mentoring programs, but we also offer outreach to incarcerated teenage boys, disabled individuals and the homeless,” Sien said.
Sien added that the role of the CSC is to provide financial and moral support to the 20 organizations.
“Groups can request to join the CSC, and once they’re admitted they receive transportation, equipment, office space, as well as undergraduate student government funding,” she said.
One of the largest mentoring programs is called Bruin Partners, which pairs 75 UCLA volunteers with middle school students in Marina del Rey.
Laura Petry, a fourth-year English student and the director of Bruin Partners, said the volunteers visit the students Monday through Thursday for two hours a day in order to establish a strong relationship.
“At the middle school, the volunteers tutor the students with their homework for the first hour, and spend their second hour engaging in planned activities such as arts and crafts,” Petry said.
“We’re there to support (middle school students) because that is the age when students start to fail out of school. If they don’t learn there are consequences early, they may repeat these bad habits in high school,” she said.
A similar group, the Asian American Tutorial Project (AATP), combines with neighboring schools such as Occidental College and USC to tutor elementary school students.
Jen Ch’ng, a third-year cognitive science student and a volunteer for AATP says her organization of 100 volunteers visits an elementary school in Chinatown on Saturday mornings to provide support and tutoring.
“We do one-on-one work, including a variety of bonding exercises,” Ch’ng said.
Similar to Bruin Partners, the volunteers at AATP spend their first hour engaging in academic tutoring, and the second hour playing games.
Ch’ng added that despite the group’s name, the students come from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and tutors do not have to be of Asian descent to volunteer.
Some groups, like the Casa Heiwa Angelina Mentorship Program (CHAMP), go directly to the homes of the students they are tutoring.
Lucy Hsu, a fourth-year psychology student and a director of CHAMP, said the group visits students living in government-subsidized apartments with their ages ranging from kindergarten to high school.
“We visit on Saturday mornings and hang out with the kids. Since we visit their homes we also have a close interaction with the parents,” Hsu said.
Hsu added that CHAMP also seeks to provide field trips and outdoor excursions for the students they mentor.
Not all of the organizations work directly with children. UCLA’s Hunger Project provides outreach to the homeless population of Los Angeles.
Jessica Hoang, the Hunger Project director, said the group of 20 volunteers visits a job development center in Hollywood, the Projects for Assistance in Transitioning from Homelessness shelter in West Los Angeles and the LA Mission Clinic in downtown.
Hoang said the volunteers at each location learn different skills: At the job development center they learn financial and educational mentoring, at the Projects for Assistance in Transitioning from Homelessness shelter they learn conversational skills, and at the Health Clinic they gain a pre-medical experience.
In addition to volunteer work, Hoang said the Hunger Project engages in political activism to raise awareness about homelessness.
Sien said opportunities exist for those students who want to engage in community service but don’t have the time to join a group.
“On Nov. 15 we’ll have community service day, a huge event where UCLA students can visit various locations such as soup kitchens to help out for the day,” Sien said.
Sien added that the commission will also have smaller scale community service days during winter quarter, and will program with other groups in the spring to put on charitable events such as the Mighty Mic concert.