The opportunity to explore and value one’s role in an interdependent community is an essential part of a Wooster liberal arts education. Service uses one’s time, energy, and talents to give to others. Doing justice is the sustained work of recognizing unjust social structures and working toward reform through civic engagement, advocacy, education, and ethical relationships.
Why engage in service and social justice in your time at Wooster?
- To change the world for the better.
- To get to know your community: discover neighbors and mentors while meeting needs.
- To act on our responsibility to return good to the world.
- To have fun: get to know a community of peers and make memories that last.
- To see the world: burst the Wooster bubble; there’s more to life than school!
- To learn from experience: practice a new skill.
- To take your classroom learning on the road and test it in the real world.
- And, ultimately, to develop the moral character, ethical leadership and compassionate heart that will last for a meaningful life’s work after Wooster.
Social Justice and Service living is the natural outgrowth of persons who ground their lives in values of equality, compassion, community, humility, and global citizenship. For many in our community, these values come from their religious and spiritual communities. Wherever you locate the source of these values, Religious & Spiritual Life welcomes you to participate, learn, and lead. Join one of several service organizations on campus, learn and serve on an alternative break trip, or contact the Wooster Volunteer Network to find a service project that links your curiosity and gifts with the world’s needs.
Service Trips
Religious & Spiritual Life, our affiliate ministries, APEX, and local groups partner regularly for a variety of service and reflection trips. These opportunities include faith-based service trips led by Hillel, UKirk Wooster, Wooster Catholic, or Wooster Christian Fellowship. The Wooster Volunteer Network offers a service and reflection trip to West Virginia in the Spring. We also have a long partnership with Trinity United Church of Christ (UCC) doing service and reflection in Tijuana, Mexico working with Esperanza International. Contact Erin Guzmán, Interim Director of Religious & Spiritual Life, for more information about any of these opportunities.