Research Topics: Student Volunteerism

Volunteer work has been a very large part of Concordia College's history. Students have always been encouraged and had the drive to reach out to the community to help out in many different ways. Over the years, the form that student volunteerism takes has changed, but the spirit and drive remain the same. There are a number of collections in the Archives which pertain to student volunteerism. One of the first would be in ​Record Group 18: Student Government, Student Organizations & Activities, 1896-2018, specifically Series 2 subseries 2: Volunteer Services of Concordia, Sources for Service (s.o.s) and Campus Service Commission, 1981-2011. Information on the organization follows:

• Sources for Service is a community service organization run by Concordia students working with various agencies in the Moorhead-Fargo area. Service-learning participants provide service in the issue areas of Tutoring, Caregiving, Emergency Assistance, Mentoring, Summer Program and Group Projects.
  Volunteer Services of Concordia is a student organization dating back to at least the early 1970s. SOS (Sources for Service) name became Campus Service Commission (date unknown).

This subseries contains 14 folders of information that consist of ​brochures, flyers and communication from these campus organizations devoted to providing service opportunities for students. There are a number of awards and other items of Volunteer Services as well as pages from a scrapbook covering 1978 to 1981. The Sources for Services includes correspondence, staff directory, its training and participant handbooks, publications including staff scrapbooks for 1995 and 1996, a club project list for 1995, publicity brochures and press releases, its participant evaluation reports of 1994 & 1995 that also includes "Student Reflections on Service-Learning and Leadership," items related to it receiving the Golden Rule Award from JC Penney, and S.W.A.T. goals.
Other information on Sources for Service can be found in Record Group 31: Media and topical files that contain general information from newspaper clippings, pamphlets and correspondence.

Concordia's volunteerism does not only take the form of an on campus organization. It takes the form of events and trips both on and off campus. Annual events on Concordia's Campus are:

• Hands for Change
• Dance Marathon
• Habitat for Humanity

Information on these events and trips can be found in Record Group 31: Media, in the Archives' Group Picture Files, in the Cobber yearbooks, and topical files that contain general information from newspaper clippings, pamphlets and correspondence. As well, information on all current events is on the Concordia College website.

Resources:
Record Group 18 Finding Aid