By Vishweshwaran Gopalakrishnan
The Center For Service and Learning at BYU is holding a Leadership Open House today and Friday where it will explain many leadership volunteer positions that are available to interested students.
?The Leadership Open House is an opportunity for students to come and learn about available leadership positions in the Center for Service,? said Casey Peterson, director of the center. ?All of our community service programs are run by student volunteers who recruit, retain and recognize other volunteers.?
The open house will feature current program directors and service council members. They will explain over 120 available leadership positions in the center and how to get applications accepted.
?A program director is a volunteer who plans activities for their program ? they have office hours that they come in on, they figure out the program budget and recruit volunteers for the activities,? said Holly Gilbert, a junior from Royal City, Wash. ?This is a good opportunity because you meet so many amazing people and you are able to get out in the community ? and you find students that have the same interests as you.?
The center has more than 42 different programs that each require three to four program directors to operate.
Members of the center?s service council train the program directors to possess valuable leadership skills used in their volunteer work.
?The service council is responsible to make sure that service happens at BYU,? said Jason Hunt, a senior from South Jordan. ?The way we do that is by recruiting and training program directors ? we set them up with the training and meet with them regularly to make sure that everything is going well.?
The center?s mission is to provide every student with a meaningful service opportunity and to instill in the heart and mind a desire to give lifelong service.
?This is a great opportunity because you learn how an organization runs, you learn how to problem solve and some of the most important lessons that I have learned at college have been through this organization because I am actually doing something,? Hunt said.
The applications for service council positions are turned into the center and are due March 13 and applications for program directors are due Friday, March 20.
?First and foremost we want the applicants to have a passion for service; secondly we are looking for people who want an experience that will help them to develop,? Peterson said. ?We don?t necessarily need perfect leaders, we want people who can use this experience to develop leadership skills and grow in their position.?
The center welcomes all BYU students to apply.
