Reinforcing community and university ties

Community Links unites IUSB students, alumni and social service providers

Created four years ago when Ken Perrin was named chancellor, Community Links unites students and alumni who want to help with more than 30 organizations that need assistance.

Joann Phillips, director of alumni affairs, said the project “gives students another look at the world. It is an important part of their education to see other aspects of life. Many of our students remain in the community and there is a vested interest in being involved. The volunteer experiences also give them a chance to explore job opportunities. There are many needs, and IUSB is committed to be part of the solution.”

Phillips added the alumni involvement also reinforces the ties to the community and university. “It is a win-win situation.”

Kat Brook is a senior education student at IUSB, and she spends several days each week working with the neighborhood children at Grace Community Center in South Bend. Brook is the coordinator of the America Reads tutoring program through IUSB and the Community Links program. “It helps to kindle a love of reading” in children, she explained. The program gets dozens of volunteers into classrooms and day-care centers.

She has worked hand in hand with Madison School in South Bend to tutor and to offer enrichment programs. In the enrichment program, she has brought guest speakers into the classroom to introduce different career opportunities to the children. Politicians, police and firefighters have been among the visitors. “They have talked about their jobs and how higher education helped them,” she said.

The heart of Brook’s volunteering work is helping children to read.

Phillips said Links has placed more than 150 tutors in schools and after-school programs in the last four years. Other programs and events have garnered hundreds more people who pitch in for the day or make bigger commitments of time.

Brook said she has a love of community. “People can’t fear to help others. You should use your gifts for the community. Any act of kindness will give them hope, and often hope is the best gift,” she said. “I feel sorry for people who don’t care about others. Life is passing them by.”

Her interest in community service began early when, at the age of 13, she worked at Logan Center, a local organization dealing with the mentally and physically disabled. She also became involved with Special Olympics in South Bend and after-school programs at a YMCA in Arizona.

Now, as she works toward her education degree, Brook said she feels she succeeds as every child succeeds in reading. “My dream is always to stay involved.”