By Brennan Sullivan, Reporter
Photo courtesy of Roosevelt University
The 2nd annual American Dream Conference was successful on many fronts. The lectures received great turn-outs and invoked compelling discussions on a variety of prevalent issues facing our country. To conclude the week,Roosevelt held a service day on Sept. 14 where students and faculty came together to volunteer.
Students and faculty were able to choose from various events to participate in, which aimed to provide a service that gave back to the community and uphold RU’s mission.
Roosevelt’s Chicago and Schaumburg campuses both held multiple projects throughout the day on Thursday. The Chicago campus events involved assembling food boxes for local families in need, calling Illinois’ Senators to encourage their support for multiple policies such as adequate funding for the International Affairs budget, and preserving the Wabash Building’s food gardens, and maintaining RU’s reputation as one of Chicago’s most eco-friendly buildings.
In Schaumburg, they held an assemblage to clean up their campus and produced hygiene kits for homeless children and military veterans.
The United Nations Association’s event urged Senator Durbin and Senator Duckworth to support at last year’s service day was passing of the Reinforcing Education Accountability in Development Act, otherwise known as READ. Enactment of this bill would help the 263 million youth students around the world who aren’t in school have the chance to undergo quality education.
This year, students who attended this event had the opportunity to thank their senators for helping to successfully pass this bill. Professor La Vonne Downey, adviser of the United Nations Association, who helped organize their service day event, said “…you have to do something beyond just hearing about injustice, you have to advocate for change, even if it takes a while. That makes us more informed and active citizens of our society.”
Freshman Selena Suwelem said that she liked being a part of service day because she got to meet others who are interested in the same kind of volunteer work she is.
Freshman Jake Hutchinson, said, “I really enjoyed service day. One of the best feelings is knowing you’ve helped people and this day gave me an opportunity to do so.”
For next year, Hutchinson said there are more kinds of services that can provided. Hutchinson replied, “I would love to see a service event that focused on donating clothes.”
As the American Dream Conference continues to expand and improve, it’s looking like the service day that follows will too.
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