“Need Service Hours? SFP Provided!!”
These are the headlines I use whenever I send an email from the L.I.N.C. office. We are L.I.N.C., Linking Individuals to the Needs of the Community, an organization on campus that seeks to inspire students to become servant-leaders in their neighborhood.
Sadly, we’ve moved far from that dream.
The truth is, I use headlines with “service hours” and “SFP” in the title, because I know they will work. We have to provide students with incentives to serve or they won’t come. But when did service become all about what we can get out of it? Shouldn’t it be about what we can give to the community?
Let me explain what I mean. This semester has been quite discouraging for L.I.N.C. We’ve had students drop out of the fall festival because they didn’t need service hours anymore. We’ve had students fail to show up at Trunk or Treat after they’d told us they would come. We’ve even had students attend our SFP events at local nursing homes but play on their phones instead of interacting with the residents.
All of this makes me wonder … how did we get here?
I wish I had a solution to transform our campus mindset, but I don’t. I just want us to start thinking: At what point did service become all about us? Service should be a lifestyle, because we care for the needs of our brothers and sisters. I long for the day when it excites us simply for this reason.