The Richter Center Student Leaders

As Richter Center Ambassadors, it is our job to involve students in community engagement and service-learning. We are the resources, facilitators, promoters, and role models for community service, and it is our duty and passion to spread the word about the importance of service in any way that we can. For the past several years, Ambassadors have had the opportunity to share their work on a regional stage at the Annual Continuums of Service conference. our national community of civic engagement in the form of a presentation that we create in the weeks leading up to the conference.

Continuums of Service (COS) is a conference in which people from universities all over the western United States get to share their experiences of service-learning, and we can mindfully engage in the spirit of service. At Fresno State, students play a strong role in community engagement, and being able to share our success with others was an incredible experience. In our presentation, we spoke about the past, present, and future of the Richter Center Ambassadors. In other words, we explained what the Ambassadors consisted of when we were first established in 2008, how we transformed into what we are now, and what former Ambassadors have moved onto.

Many people who attended our presentation shared positive feedback and wanted advice from us on how they could improve their service based programs. All of this positive feedback reaffirmed my commitment to the Ambassador program. In order to create our presentation, we had to reflect on the work we had done during the course of our term in the Ambassador program. It really made me think of how much I have grown during my time with the Richter Center, and why I love what I do so much. Many of the people who attended the conference recognized us for the remainder of it because we did such a good job of portraying how important our individual roles are in engaging other students, faculty, and staff in service-learning.

If there is one thing I have learned, it is that the students that make up the Richter Center Ambassadors are passionate about what we do and that was clearly shown when we represented Fresno State at COS. Being able to articulate our service experiences to others is just as important as implementing them, I’m glad that I was able to do so with my fellow Ambassadors. Not only were we able to work as a team to present to others the importance of what we do, but we also got to learn from others at the conference as well and will continue to expand and improve our program. This was my first year attending COS, and I learned so much not only from the other presentations I attended, but also by working alongside my fellow ambassadors. I can’t wait until next year!

We are currently recruiting Ambassadors for the 2015-16 academic year (as well as Reflection Facilitators and SERVE Committee Members).  Applications are due this Friday at 12:00 PM.  Visit the recruitment section of this blog to download an application and learn more about each of the positions.

What do you love about service? How do you share your story?

-Ambassador Alex