Faces of Michigan
Name: Madeline Stano
Year: Class of 2009
Major: History and Sociology
Home: Michigan
Madeline Stano, Human Rights Activist, Takes the Community Plunge.
About 125 University of Michigan students, faculty and staff took the plunge on a sunny September Saturday to sample community service and contribute to a good cause.
Community Plunge, the one-day community service project, offered campus wide but targeted toward first-year students, was held September 8 at sites around Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Detroit. The Ginsberg Center and the Division of Student Affairs sponsors the annual event. U-M Regent Kathy White delivered the keynote address.
Madeline Stano is no newcomer to community service — the junior has been on two Alternative Spring Breaks and is active with Human Rights Through Education — but it was the first time she participated in Community Plunge. It was a way, she said, for her human rights organization to come together at the start of the academic year and do something good for the community. "It was something positive to do together so we could use the momentum throughout the year." Her group spent the day mowing lawns, scrubbing windows, weeding, and cleaning spider webs from the homes of elderly residents in Ann Arbor. "Seeing the immediate results of our service was great," she said. "We got to see the difference we made." Stano has returned several times since to help one couple who are unable to tend their large yard.
Community Plunge volunteers spent the day at one of 17 sites, playing games with nursing home residents, cleaning up yards of the elderly, working in a resale shop, and more. Participating organizations included Habitat for Humanity of Huron Valley, Greening of Detroit, SOS Community Services, and others. Students, students groups, staff, and faculty participated.
"We want to introduce students to service so they will consider doing service in the future," said Grace Kotre, co-chair of the event. "We also wanted to introduce them to the services provided at the Ginsberg Center and how the University can support them in doing service."
Students benefited as much as those they helped. "It's a good way for students, especially freshman and graduate students new to campus, to get to know the University community," Stano said. "It helps to break down this super-structure. The people at our site, including the freshman, were really excited."
Reprinted by permission from Ginsberg Center E-Newsletter (October 2007).