Article By: Alex Pearlman

There are three people responsible for most of the exceptional volunteer work that comes from the students in this university. Seniors Allison Brito, Deborah Searfoss and Junior Nick McKenna facilitate all co-curricular programs for the university’s community service office, Suffolk’s Organization for Uplifting Lives through Service, better known as S.O.U.L.S.
Brito, Searfoss and McKenna are “service scholars,” meaning each is responsible for organizing the persons and programs S.O.U.L.S. uses to reach out in the community, from soup kitchens and elderly homes, to high school mentoring and Alternative Winter and Spring Breaks.

Through the service scholars, over 50 people at Suffolk do community service every week, amounting to thousands of hours of service via the university throughout the year.

“Every single day, there’s a volunteer project going on and people just walk into the office to see what’s happening,” said McKenna.

This semester, McKenna organized Hunger and Homelessness month, which ran through November and included month-long food drives. Other programs included the Oxfam Hunger Banquet and a presentation of art produced by Boston’s homeless population, among other events and programs.

McKenna is also in charge of organizing weekly supper clubs, where students can volunteer at soup kitchens, as well as the Connections to College program, a high school mentoring program for students in Dorchester, Roxbury and Mattapan.
According to a S.O.U.L.S. brochure, the high school students “visit Suffolk every other week and work with [S.O.U.L.S.] students to prepare for applying to and attending college.”

McKenna is in charge of 12 mentors “from all over Suffolk. We have people from NESAD, the business school, and CAS.”
Searfoss and Brito have also been exceptionally busy this semester. Between the two of them, seven programs are organized, including Brito’s Alternative Spring Break (ASB) and Searfoss’ Alternative Winter Break (AWB) in El Salvador.

Brito is also in charge of Food for Thought, a monthly lunch discussion group with faculty and students on various social issues and monthly pasta dinners at the Heritage Apartments, a low-income housing complex.

Searfoss organizes Community 101 month, which is usually at the beginning of the year, and is targeted at new students, teaching them about community service and helping them decide what area of service they’re interested in. Searfoss also organizes ABCD North End, a “happy hour” lunch for the elderly where students can visit.

S.O.U.L.S. also helps students become involved in community service through academics and Service Learning classes.
“Students learn about the issue in the classroom, then go out and see it in the real world,” explained Searfoss.

If a student wants to learn more about a subject they are taking a class on, such as a government class, they can earn credit for working with non-profit groups like MassVote. In fact, many classes on campus require Service Learning; something that McKenna believes sets Suffolk apart from other universities.

“You can get internships and job offers from Service Learning classes working with S.O.U.L.S.,” agrees Searfoss. “Students have continued to work for organizations they do service learning for, including a couple of Suffolk students who went into the Peace Corp via Service Learning.”

Searfoss has worked for Latinos United in Massachusetts (LUMA) during the past two years. “It’s a great experience, and it’s also so great for networking. People don’t realize the connections they can make [through the service internships]. It’s the best-kept secret,” said Searfoss.

As far as upcoming programs, Alternative Spring Break has four locations to choose from this year in Mississippi, Colorado, California and Michigan.

Service Day, an annual event sponsored by S.O.U.L.S. is scheduled to happen again in April. “Service day is HUGE,” said Brito. “It’s one full day where we invite the entire Suffolk community to volunteer with all of our community partners and then have a nice dinner. You can grab some friends, or people from the club you’re involved in and say, ‘here’s a way to get involved, let’s go do this.’”

McKenna added, “We have so much retention from Service Day. People come back after falling in love with the organization they worked with.”

Founded in 1997, S.O.U.L.S. is a relatively new organization, but with the hard work of Director Carolina Garcia and Assistant Director Tim Albers, the service scholars have grown the office exponentially, working between 30 and 50 hours a week.

“We have a lot of support from the staff at S.O.U.L.S. and the student volunteers,” said McKenna, who is in his first year as a service scholar. “It’s changed my life.”

Brito agrees. “We work full time because we care.”

To learn more about S.O.U.L.S., go to www.suffolk.edu/communityservice.