Student-led initiatives use teams of volunteers to develop and implement community-based projects while tapping into the creativity and energy of the Sarah Lawrence population.
Students can volunteer with an existing initiative or start new relationships with a community partner. A staff advisor supports all projects, offering guidance when needed.
Current Initiatives
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Casa de Esperanza
In partnership with Sisters of Charity, Sarah Lawrence students support newly immigrated families with childcare and conversation during English language classes. -
Enviro-Earth
During the growing season, children and adults in Yonkers turn a series of vacant lots into lush gardens by growing vegetables and flowers that serve more than 2,000 area residents. Volunteers make two trips per week to the community gardens and work with the youth group that uses the garden as a place of learning. This project is supported by the Greyston Foundation. -
Health and Science After-School Program
Students provide hands-on science demonstrations for children in an afterschool program. Through these demonstrations, the volunteers expose the children to different types of science and health topics—from explorations of the color spectrum to non-Newtonian fluids. -
Language Partnerships
Language acquisition is a challenge—whether it is one's first language or seventh. Through a partnership with the Sarah Lawrence Office of Operations, volunteers host conversational English for members of the Sarah Lawrence community. -
Reading Buddies
Reading Buddies provides additional literacy support to elementary learners reading below grade level. The partnership works in an afterschool program to promote literacy and provide homework support.
“My junior year, I had the idea for an afterschool program to provide supplemental science education. Instead, Community Partnerships coached me through every step of the process. They put in a lot of work, and the program became an achievable goal. I remember thinking, ‘this is the first time I've felt like I can DO something!’ By now, that confidence has become a driving force: I think less about whether I can do something, only whether it should be done, and how to do it.”—Sydney H. Russell Leed ’14