It’s Chow Night at a Davis church, and about 30 or 40 homeless people have gathered for the weekly meal prepared and served by UC Davis students. In the kitchen, Vanessa Reyes of Fairfield cooks the meat for the meal on a large range.

At a Sunday afternoon health clinic in Sacramento, Vu Tran of Stockton provides a bridge of both language and comfort for Vietnamese patients who are being screened for cancer.

The two are among the thousands of UC Davis students who volunteer their time and effort through Human Corps to meet people’s needs and build better communities.

Cynthia Goldberg, coordinator for the volunteer clearinghouse on campus, estimates that students performed more than 250,000 hours of community service in 2007-08. “Volunteerism enriches students as people,” Goldberg said. “They develop leadership skills, and the opportunity for personal growth is very exciting.”

Feeding the homeless

Now a third-year student, Reyes has been involved in numerous service projects, including a student-run medical clinic, since her freshman year. She first volunteered with Davis Community Meals to serve Thanksgiving dinner at the Episcopal Church of St. Martin. Then she decided to help coordinate other students to provide meals for a homeless community that she once had no idea existed in Davis.

“The crazy thing is we have a $30 weekly budget, entirely provided by student fundraising, and we’re still able to feed everyone — sometimes with leftovers,” said Reyes, who is studying neurobiology, physiology and behavior. “We do cook a lot of pasta!”

Reyes and other students clip coupons on the weekends to stretch their budget, and Davis Community Meals provides the meat. But the homeless aren’t just hungry when school is in session, so Reyes helps ensure that Chow Night goes on even during quarter and summer breaks.

“It’s impressive to see students looking outside of themselves to see where their efforts may benefit others,” Goldberg said.

Connecting students with service

Human Corps is a component of the Internship and Career Center on campus and serves to connect students and employees with volunteer opportunities. It has an online database for volunteer opportunities at 400 to 500 organizations. Sometimes jobs and scholarships related to service are posted on the unit’s Web site, and internships may be related to community service such as the student-run medical clinics, Davis Community Meals or the SPCA.

“Through service-oriented internships, students have the opportunity to apply their learning in the real world while also making a positive difference in someone’s life,” Goldberg said.

Both Reyes and Tran are involved in the Bonner Leaders Program, which is affiliated with Human Corps. The program organizes student community involvement and helps them to develop leadership skills. Students pledge a one-year commitment to the program; all members are required to complete 300 hours of service during a 12-month period.

Patients and seniors

Tran, a fourth-year student majoring in biological sciences, gains valuable experience toward his future career in medicine during his volunteer hours with VN CARES, the Vietnamese Cancer Awareness, Research and Education Society.

Every weekend, students recruit Vietnamese in South Sacramento for cancer screenings — including breast, prostate and cervical cancer. Clients then undergo the procedures on the first Sunday of the month at the Paul Hom Asian Clinic on Broadway at Sixth Street in Sacramento.

Fluent in Vietnamese, Tran translates for patients who are often shy about getting medical help. In turn, the position provides Tran with experience in the health field: interacting one-on-one with patients, working on a team with other motivated students and talking with the doctors.

“It’s personally rewarding — patients are very grateful for the screening and health care they receive,” Tran said.

He also volunteers at Sierra Health Care Center, a nursing home in Davis. Tran participates in games or simply takes time to strike up conversations. “We want to keep them enthusiastic about life,” he said of the residents.

“Being a part of the Bonner Program has given me many leadership skills that I can use the rest of my life,” Tran said.

While some students, like Reyes and Tran, do longer-term volunteer work, others are participating in new quarterly weekends of service, organized in honor of the campus’s centennial year and its focus on public service.

The weekends of service are open to students and employees. The next is to be held April 25 and 26.

Trina Wood, a freelance writer, wrote this article for Aggie Family Pack.