The Office for Service Learning and the Center for Intercultural Learning and Community Engagement started a merging process hoping to offer a more organized approach for students to engage in service opportunities on campus.

The merger will produce the new Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement.

Interim Director of Service Learning Kimberly Vrudny said the merger will bring a joint effort between the two offices that has not been seen before.

“They’re really two halves that are starting to work together and collaborate better than we have done on campus prior to this moment,” Vrudny said.

The service learning side is focused on course-based service opportunities where classes work with a community partner, such as a non-profit organization, that apply to their coursework. Vrudny said one of the most popular examples on campus is the partnership between COJO 111 classes and Cristo Rey Jesuit High School.

Vrundy said the partnership’s community engagement side has three primary programs in operation: the Tutor-Mentor Program, Literacy Connections and the Early College Awareness Program.

Sophomore Nyajal Dup said working with Literacy Connections was exciting, and she hopes to go back to one of the schools she worked at previously.

“You just help kids in elementary school with their reading, memorizing and writing,” Dup said. “They really enjoy having us because it gives them an outlook at what their future could be as college students.”

Senior Ryan Williams, who worked in the Tutor-Mentor program for the Center for Intercultural Learning and Community Engagement, called these services “an escape from your usual school routine.”

“It’s something different, something that makes you feel like you’re not only going to school here but connected to the community in the surrounding area,” Williams said.

The need for a merger came about when both programs realized that they worked with many of the same clients on similar projects.

“We want to share resources and be more effective in the community by increasing communication with each other,” Vrudny said.

In an effort to reorganize the structure of both offices, Vrudny is heading a search for an executive director.

“Hopefully we will have someone in place by July 1,” Vrudny said.

Vrudny said that students can expect to see new initiatives once the new office becomes established. For example, students working at a site for class and wishing to continue afterward can make an easier transition within the newly combined office.

In addition, the new program, “Common Good Conversations,” will bring together students interested in talking about the common good and living with integrity in a consumer culture by reflecting on each other’s experiences.

Dup said that the merger will be beneficial to everyone.

“With the combination of programs, I think working with each other will get the programs out better and that way, more students will be able to be involved,” Dup said.

Alex Goering can be reached at goer8777@stthomas.edu.