Sixteen Florida State University students volunteered with the City of Tallahassee for the annual MLK Community Celebration and Festival at Cascades Park on Monday, Jan. 20.
As part of FSU’s 37th Annual MLK Week, “United We Serve” encouraged FSU students to get involved with service projects offered by the FSU Center for Leadership & Service’s EngageTLH program. The event brought together members of the FSU student organization DREAM and Student Government Association, as well as students with EngageTLH, the Community Ambassador Program and Service Scholars from the Center for Leadership & Service.
“When students commit to service, they are doing more than helping out, they are learning alongside local leaders while building trust and collective empowerment in their community,” said Maria-Paula McIntyre, program coordinator for EngageTLH.
Student volunteers participated in place-based community service and engaged with Tallahassee history that is displayed throughout Cascades Park.
“The MLK Day events held by the City of Tallahassee are essential for fostering community and promoting service,” said Priyanka Perumalraja, an FSU sophomore studying computational biology. “Service is an act of bringing the community together to address a community need in an actionable way and is one of the most important facets of our society.”
As part of EngageTLH, students are asked to reflect on their service, providing the opportunity to have a dialogue on their experience and think about other ways they can incorporate service into their lives.
“By serving with EngageTLH, I was able to directly connect with the Tallahassee community and learn about what the events of the weekend meant for them, broadening my connection with the community and, in turn, making my service more meaningful,” Perumalraja said.
Supporting the students were McIntyre, Tatyanna Wilson from Student Engagement and chairperson for MLK Week, and Kyanna Austin, program manager for Student Governance and Advocacy.
EngageTLH service projects currently offer 17 trips to different nonprofits per week, with more than 1,000 student volunteers participating each academic year. Service projects address key issues from youth development to animal care to housing, food insecurity and elder services.
Participants can sign up online for a service project and the center provides transportation to and from the service site. Those interested in joining a project can find the current listings at thecenter.fsu.edu/EngageTLH.
MLK Week aims to bring the FSU and Tallahassee communities together to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Events that were originally scheduled through Jan. 25, were impacted by the winter storm and are working on being rescheduled for future dates.
For more information and to stay up to date with rescheduled events, visit mlk.fsu.edu.
