April 3, 2002
Rev. Dr. Stuart C. Lord
Considering the amount of time and energy that it takes to be a professional student in any graduate program, many of you are left wondering how you could possibly take on another commitment.
- How can you squeeze another hour out of your already jam-packed day?
- How can you ever be in a state of mind to do anything on the weekends but rest and relax?
Considering the fact that service does take time and energy---perhaps time and energy that you imagine your self not to have---it seems entirely logical that you might catch your self asking, "How Can I Afford To Serve?"
Well, I am here today to ask, "How Can You Afford Not To Serve?"
Now, I could stand up here and fill your heads with the most disturbing of facts. I could give you the appalling statistics of how many high school graduates cannot read at a sixth grade competency level, or how many homeless people will wander our cities' streets tonight, hungry and hopeless. Or, I could pick up the newspaper and read you obituaries of countless teenagers innocently gunned-down by gang crossfire in this country. However, instead of approaching the topic of service from the angle of needs, I want to view it from an entirely different perspective, namely, that of resources.
Often people ask me, "Why Serve?" "Why should I take time out of my already busy schedule and get involved?" This is indeed a simple question, and it is leads me to respond with a simple answer, "Because You have something to give." Each of us, I am truly convinced, has something meaningful to give back to our community: a talent, a knowledge, a skill, a patience, a pleasantness, an energy or an understanding.
A man by the name of David Forward has authored an informative and inspirational book entitled, "Heroes After Hours." I encourage all of you to read it, if you ever find the chance.
In the book, Forward chronicles the life stories of 16 professionals---all from Fortune 500 companies---who have taken their personal and professional resources and applied them directly to educating inner-city children, feeding and housing the homeless, comforting the sick, and saving the environment. After hours and on the weekends these "secretaries, stockbrokers, computer programmers, executives, and factory workers" are bettering the quality of life in their communities.
The fact is that We All Have Resources To Give Back To Our Communities... Let me repeat that: The fact that We All Have Resources To Give Back To Our Communities is a point that David Forward seeks to drive home on every page of his book, and it is one that I hope you will take with you, when you leave here today.
The pitfall of too many professionals in the field of service is that they talk so much about "Why to Serve" that they never get around to talking about "How to Serve." These two topics, I would argue, are altogether inseparable.
It's like sin and confession, a professor of mine once said...
"one without the other doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense."
The point being that we need to know exactly, how it is, that we can get involved and make a difference in our communities. I am humbled to say that a week doesn't go by at Dartmouth without a hand full of individuals asking me the question,
"Hey Stuart, or hey Dean Lord, how can I get involved?"
I always answer their question with one of my own,
"Well, what's your passion?"
That is to say,
- "What social condition would you like to see redeemed?"
- "What sight in your community would you like to see changed?"
- "What group of people would you like to help live a better life?"
My purpose behind questions such as these is to empower people to think about what is absolutely meaningful to them. It is when you take that interest, or that issue, or that personal passion, and match it with a compatible community need...that a truly transformational service experience springs to life.
For all too long we have lived with the misconception that service is a one-way street---a one way street in the sense that only the person being served is transformed.
Well, I have spent the better part of my professional career witnessing countless examples of two-way streets---in which the server's own life takes on a whole new significance and seriousness because of their service experience.
I have seen students change their majors, doctors move abroad and retired grandparents take in troubled teens after their own children have long since been raised.
In fact, I have seen that two-way street grow into a full-blown freeway, as students can't manage to contain their passion for service and end up getting their entire living unit---60...70....90...college students---working together to improve literacy in local middle schools or complete housing projects in an underdeveloped neighborhood. It is seeing these transformations that has led me to believe that the one serving has just as much to gain from the volunteer experience as do those being served.
Service is not only a personally meaningful experience, it is also an enriching part of the educational experience.
Anytime someone asks me about how service can impact the educational setting, I like to give them the example of the Cross Cultural Service Project at Dartmouth.
Cross Cultural Service Project
When I first arrived at Dartmouth, President Wright issued me a challenge as to how we could engage the undergraduate and the graduate populations in a co-curricular experience that was both intellectually stimulating and personally rewarding. More importantly, an experience that would create some common ground between the two constituencies. My answer to his charge was simple.......SERVICE!
We identified an international developing community that possessed needs that our educational community could meet -- given our resources.
We created a team comprised of students from three graduate schools (Thayer Engineering, Dartmouth Medical School, Tuck Business School), undergraduate students, faculty and professionals in the community.
This service project played an important role in their intellectual pursuits and they were now using real life situations to put their knowledge and skills into practice.
Conclusion
In the remainder of my time here today, I want to pose a hypothetical situation to you and ask that you help me think it through....
Let's say that a Law School was interested in a Cross Cultural Service Project like the one that I have just described. However, they are unsure of what their contributions to a developing community might consist of or look like.
- Drawing upon your own experience and expertise, as a law student, what service could you provide to a struggling community such as Siuna?
- How might that service experience impact your own course of study and professional development?
"How Can You Afford To Serve?"
"How Can You Afford Not To Serve?"
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