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In years past they've helped a children's hospital, food banks, and family shelters.
This year, students from the College of Hospitality, Retail, and Sport Management and University 101 are rolling up their sleeves for Columbia's Habitat for Humanity in another of what has become a series of annual community service projects by the college.
"I guess the word is getting out about what's going on here," said Karen Kemp, explaining how Habitat contacted the college through Clay Bolton, associate director of student involvement and leadership, to ask for its help. Kemp is an adjunct instructor who teaches HRSM 301, the college's professional development course that helps usher students into the work world.
"Dean (Patricia) Moody has always wanted the college's students to understand they're expected to give back to their community," added Kemp. "When they leave here there is an expectation of public service, and it is set early."
This year, students in Kemp's course are helping to raise money for Habitat and going on sales calls to obtain merchandise for what Habitat calls its "re-store" at 483 Sunset Blvd. in West Columbia. The store stocks household furnishings, appliances, furniture, and construction materials.
The students are working in a team effort with students in the college's promotions course taught by Dan Berry who are developing an advertising plan for the Habitat store. Students in Barney Allman's human resource and small business management sections will develop an independent study to assist in operating the Habitat store, while Marianne Bickle's University 101 and Retailing 747 students will serve as volunteers in the store and develop a category management system for Habitat.
This past summer HRSM 301 students painted the store.
In the past Kemp has divided her students into teams and given them money that she tells them they have to parlay into a larger amount on behalf of a charity of their choice. The original principal is later returned to the college.
"We go through a series of lectures in which we talk about what it means to be part of a team, making good decisions, and developing consensus-building techniques, then the students make a decision about what type of fundraising they want to do," said Kemp, whose professional background is in corporate training and human resources.
In previous years students have raised money by marketing t-shirts, selling note cards made from drawings by young patients in a children's hospital, and collecting pennies among students at competing schools whose winner received a free pizza party.
This year's fund-raising activity will raise money to be used in a variety of ways to help Habitat, from improving the store's merchandising display by retail students, to providing overall store improvement, or for the purchase of materials to stock the store's inventory.
Because some students have an affinity for one charitable activity over another, the college lets them decide what agency they want to help and at the end of their project they give a presentation on how they've helped the organization.
"You can tell it means a lot to them and that they've also learned a lot about the community," said Kemp. "The students that went to the Harvest Hope Food Bank could not get over the fact that a room of food could be gone in one day or that South Carolina is the second state in the nation for children who go to bed hungry.
"That made a strong impact on them. It's not just that they'll work on the project this year as students. Many will want to go back and do volunteer work with the organization after they leave here."
In addition to teaching the students about the needs of a community, their public service helps them develop networking, team-building, problem-solving, and communication skills while providing a sense of accomplishment in achieving the group's goal, Kemp added.
"It's a good laboratory hands-on step for what it will be like to work in a corporation, but I've also been shocked at how much the experience meant to them. The minute we break into teams the whole atmosphere of the class changes and it's much more dynamic and the students are much more involved because they're very much more entrepreneurial here."
1/07
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HRSM 301 course students are, from left, John Kasik, Jason Rice, and Tyler Priester. As part of a retail team, they created and sold "GO COCKS!" t-shirts for the Tennessee game to raise money for the Habitat for Humanity store. Not pictured are Ashley Huskey and Katie Mediary.
