WWW14 Volunteer Comments

It was a great experience to be a team leader, not only because of the opportunity at networking but also because of the satisfaction that you feel that you are putting together a project and that you're making it work!

In four hours we helped provide more than 14,000 meals at the St. Louis Area Food bank.

It was an amazing learning experience because I had never heard of a place like Lydia’s House.  It was a real eye opener.

It’s good to feel involved in a campus activity.  That’s hard to find for a commuter student.

I think it’s a great idea to have Freshman Seminar classes do a project together since it gives us an opportunity to get closer.

The kids really had a great time! Wish we could do WWW more than just once a year!

This was my fourth year being a team leader and as I reflect on every site that I have volunteered at, I see how I have grown as a person. I purposely chose to do a new site every year no matter how much fun I had at a site the year before. I consider myself very fortunate in helping with this event every year since my freshman year. I will never forget the sound of children laughing, playing, the sweat from building a playground, rocking a baby to sleep, painting inspirational quotes on the walls of an elementary school, of sharing jokes with a refugee.

It’s an amazing way of promoting community connections for students, many of whom may not have had similar experiences in the past.

I think that some teachers who don’t appreciate the program and still have class on WWW day are quite unfortunate.

It was nice to help the community and meet new staff and students.

I love this idea.  I intend to come back as an alum.

The children of St. Vincent’s seemed to have an awesome time dancing with us.  We should always come back here.

I think that it’s amazing that an entire University can shut down to go out and do community service.

This is a great way for the Webster community to reach out to the St. Louis area.

Webster students are given a unique opportunity to bond as well as help the community, unlike any other school.

This program is incredible – what a great opportunity!

Singing and dancing at the senior center made my day as much as theirs.

I love the T-shirt contest for this year.  It looks great!

Volunteering at open door (through WWW) has given me the common public perception of animals as disposable objects.  It has convinced me of the need for federal spay/neuter legislation that will greatly reduce the population of unwanted dogs and cats. Thanks for giving us the opportunity

It was obvious that the residents at Bethesda Dilworth were looking forward to the carnival.  It was great to see them smile whenever they got a prize!

Always very organized for such a huge project.

We had a great group of faculty and students who came together as a team to help others.

I enjoyed being a Team Leader this year. Our team was pumped to work with kids and the kids LOVED us!

I was worried before going to the Head start classroom since I wasn’t sure that the kids would understand my English, but we could communicate pretty well.  We played and talked a lot.  It was a very great experience for me!!

This was a great project and the work was directly related to the mission of the organization.  We could see how we were helping and it made all of us want to return to help more.

WWW was very well organized.  You did a wonderful job.  Thank you!

I really enjoyed meeting new people and working with them outside of the classroom.

The coordinator at our Head start site kept telling us how grateful she was and what a blessing we were.

WWW 14 Volunteer Recommendations

I heard that some classes were not canceled on the day of WWW.  Some students couldn't participate in the program.  All of classes should be canceled on WWW day.

Have WWW more than once a year.

Somehow, there is a way to get more students involved.

Try to get Team Leaders to e-mail their volunteers earlier than the day before.

It would be helpful to have the Team Leader and agency phone numbers beforehand in case we need to get directions.

Have a food budget or provide lunch for volunteers.

Encouraging more faculty to encourage students to attend by canceling class or offering a make-up assignment.  I have used this technique in my class and it had been successful.

Have someone sign up as a driver in advance would be helpful.

My contact person for the site never called me back and was not there on the day of our project.

Webster University should have a community service office so we can have these opportunities year-round.

Some of the freshmen weren’t sure how to sign up and were conflicted between projects with dorm floors or seminar projects.

We should do WWW every semester.  The communities could really use it.

Get the Marketing/Ad students to help promote WWW around campus.

Make it a mandatory commitment for students – this shouldn’t be a holiday for them.

Some of the project information needs to be verified and clarified to prevent miscommunication. 

I wish the agency had more work for us to do.  They shouldn’t be shy about asking us to work, that’s why we are there.

Encourage teachers to help students register for a project and tell us more about the program.

Student should be informed more about WWW. For example, pictures from last year should be the front page of Webster.edu.

I would like to see more projects working with animals.