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Director of Y-Serve encourages students to make service a 'lifestyle instead of a project'

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Chris Crippen speaks to BYU students about using their divine gifts to serve others. This was the final Check Your PIESS clinic of the semester and focused on cultivating spiritual and social strength. (Jaycee Lundell)

Chris Crippen, the Director of Y-Serve, delivered a presentation about the impact of service on students’ social and spiritual well-being on Nov. 20.

This presentation took place at the final Check Your PIESS, or Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Social, and Spiritual Wellness, clinic for the semester, hosted by the BYU Office of Belonging. Clinics happened throughout the semester and focused on different “slices” of well-being. They were also each taught by an expert in the field.

Lita Little Giddens, an associate vice president of BYU Belonging, opened the event and explained that the aim of the clinics is to combat loneliness and promote wellness on campus.

“It was through prayer that this initiative came about,” Giddens said.

Crippen’s message centered on focusing outward toward others during the college years, a time in which individuals are typically concerned with themselves. Crippen warned that this exclusive focus on oneself can become isolating.

He explained that students worry themselves with questions such as, "What should I major in?" "Where should I live?" and "What will my future look like?"

“All of these things are on your mind ... and that inward place can be very dark; it can be very hard. It can be very confining and restricting,” he said.

The solution, Crippen explained, is service.

Y-Serve has plenty of opportunities for students to serve, with 70 different projects that are “dreamt up by and created and then maintained by BYU students,” Crippen said.

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Students get to know each other with questions given by the presenter. For the majority of the students there, it was their first time attending a Check Your PIESS clinic. (Jaycee Lundell)

The focus Crippen emphasized in his address was discovering individually unique, God-given talents and then using those gifts to bless the needs of each of God’s children.

“As one who carries the spiritual DNA of God, you have unique characteristics about you that are different from your neighbors," he said. "What are going to do with them?"

Crippen used examples from his personal life, stories from the scriptures and small group activities to emphasize the power that serving with divine gifts can have on social and spiritual well-being.

The ultimate goal Crippen gave was for students to serve in the way the Savior did, where service becomes "a lifestyle, instead of a project."

Students who attended this Check Your PIESS Clinic were inspired to focus more on service, despite their busy college lives.

Megan Beale, a BYU student and first time attendee at the Check Your PIESS clinic, learned that “talking about your talents isn’t bragging and you can use them to glorify God," she said.

Josh Beale, Megan’s husband, realized that “service is more of an integration into your life rather than a part of your day," he said.

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Student enjoys a slice of pumpkin cheesecake pie after the PIESS clinic presentation. BYU Belonging serves pie during every Check Your PIESS event and will be hosting an event to celebrate National Pie Day on Dec 2. (Jaycee Lundell)

After the presentation, the students who attended the event met in the Office of Belonging to socialize and enjoy a slice of pie.