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Semester Long Service Learning Project Teaches Students Professional Skills While Giving Back To Homebound Seniors

By Anne Carroll

Throughout the fall 2024 semester, a group of students at St. Thomas Aquinas College (STAC) has been engaging in a service learning project to bolster support among the college aged students to participate in Meals on Wheels Rockland as part of a “Content Development for Public Relations” class taught by Professor Elaine Winship.

The class has been working to generate awareness of Meals on Wheels among the college aged students after research suggested Meals on Wheels would benefit greatly if the organization could recruit younger  volunteers. To spotlight the opportunity, the class has been doing promotional work on social media and hosted an on-campus “STACsGiving” event on November 19. During STACsGiving, students prepared positive cards, photos, and decorative pumpkins as part of “bundles of gratitude” to be delivered to 800 homebound seniors.

Liam McClinsey, a STAC senior who is part of this public relations class, is proud of the work he and his classmates have put in saying “I think we’ve all done more than we thought we could.”

McClinsey says the experience he’s had doing this service learning project for Meals on Wheels has been “great because we’re doing all this work with public relations learning and actually applying all these skills, but it’s for a real meaningful organization. It has a real impact, and it’s academics with a purpose.”

Meals on Wheels Rockland is a nonprofit organization that’s been aiding the county’s homebound senior citizens for more than four decades delivering meals to seniors’ homes.  The organization also operates five Senior Activity Centers countywide, all of which offer transportation. These efforts provide both meals and socialization to seniors who are struggling due to immobility, old age and medical infirmities.

With 80 employees and more than 800 volunteers, Meals on Wheels heavily relies on volunteers. But more are needed, and recruiting younger people is key to ensure a next-generation commitment to service.

To spread awareness about Meals on Wheels to college populations, McClinsey and his classmates are using an omni-platform approach on a shoe-string budget. Event planning and promotion has been a focus, but the students have also done tabling events to spread the word among their peers. Doing what college students do most naturally, they’ve taken to Instagram and TikTok to create campaigns to entice future volunteers. Others have been developing their outreach skills writing press releases and communicating with the press. (That’s how RCBJ learned about this effort!)

McClinsey said engaging in the Meals on Wheels project with his classmates has “opened up our minds” since “you don’t really see a lot of these seniors who are struggling, especially the homebound ones. So this has helped us know more about what they deal with and how local nonprofits are integral.” The students have also been learning about the mechanics of nonprofits and how they operate.

We have “learned a lot about Meals on Wheels” and have gained “a profound appreciation for what they do.” McClinsey said, adding it is “heartbreaking how some homebound seniors can’t enjoy a good quality of life since they lack the support they need.”

A small team of ten, “it’s taken immense collaboration” for McClinsey’s public relations class to pull off the work they’ve been doing this semester.

McClinsey recalls there was “a lot of working in class, but also out of class. But I think it’s brought us all together.” This crazy endeavor of a project has been a team effort that McClinsey and his peers couldn’t have done without each other. In doing this service learning project these students have fostered their own community, getting to know each other better, and developed a mutual respect for this kind of work.

“Being able to learn more about public relations while helping their community and strengthening their connections through this service learning project,” said McClinsey. “We’re all very grateful to have the opportunity to support” Meals on Wheels Rockland.