Community Service
At Purchase, we are mindful—of our community, our environment, and the world around us. We cultivate a culture where you’ll find you have more to give than you might have imagined. Whether it’s your time, your talent (or your eyes and ears), you’re always encouraged to participate.
We provide many opportunities for students and alumni to grow and give back. Contact our Student Involvement staff.
Purchase Alternative Service Trip
These service-oriented trips are organized entirely by students. The PAST committee handles all logistics—from choosing the site and activities to selecting the students. Recent trips include Washington, DC, where students assisted in a kitchen serving food to the hungry through Food & Friends and Martha’s Table; and Philadelphia, where they helped build a community garden with Mission Greenhouse.
Service Learning Course
Our mindfulness of community involvement extends to the classroom with a 4-credit course, Fundamentals of Service Learning (IDI 1100), which breaks down the sociological, psychological, and interpersonal aspects of service learning. Students develop their own service-oriented projects, such as conducting interactive workshops in local schools, assisting with ESL learning programs, and participating in campus-wide enrichment programs.
Project Focus Partnership Program
Our students mentor local youth, bolstering high school students’ civic and leadership skills, academic performance, and college readiness.
Project Focus programs at local schools and nonprofit organizations include:
- Yonkers Partners in Education (YPIE): weekly lunchtime college readiness workshops
- TRIO Upward Bound Program: weekly academic tutoring, monthly campus-based academic enrichment program, and summer residential program
- Liberty Partnerships Great Potential Program: weekly academic tutoring and college readiness workshops, and monthly campus-based enrichment programs
- New York GEAR UP via Yonkers Public Schools District: monthly campus-based college readiness workshops
- Westchester Family Services Big Brother/Big Sister Partnership with JFK Magnet Elementary: weekly mentoring workshops
- Don Bosco Community Center: weekly academic support workshops
- Port Chester Carver Center: weekly leadership series
- Port Chester/Rye Brook Public Library: weekly arts and crafts activities
CASA Purchase
A progressive resource for connecting with our local Latino population, CASA Purchase is an Outreach Center for Latin American Studies. The center’s goal is to weave together the educational, artistic, and research-based opportunities of the college with the needs of our local community, their schools, and their organizers. Bienvenidos!
Great Potential
This program supports local students with homework assistance, mentoring, service learning, cultural enrichment, counseling, leadership training, and more. [In 2013–14, this program provided services to 240 middle and high school students in five Westchester county school districts.]