History
In 1988, with a start-up grant from the University's Presidential Initiatives Fund, SERVE was born. In the beginning, SERVE functioned simply as an information and referral service for students interested in volunteer opportunities in the community. Those students quickly expressed their desire to not only be involved in the community, but also to initiate, develop, and lead programs for themselves and for other students.
During the 1989-1990 school year, students expanded the information and referral services and developed programs such as the Volunteer Fair, Campus Service Day (which would become SERVE Week) and Alternative Spring Break.
In 1990-91, as our programs and campus interest continued to grow, it became clear that a formal structure was needed for the student leadership that was growing in SERVE. During that year, a group of 10 students comprised what would become SERVE Board the following year. They met as needed and worked together on all of the programs. That year also marked the beginning of our deliberate efforts to network with other student-run service organizations. A UM Service Network was developed as a means of bringing together organizations who were working in the community. Students also began getting involved in state and national organizations such as the Campus Outreach Opportunity League and Michigan Campus Compact.
1991-92 marked the beginning of a more specialized leadership structure with the formalization of SERVE Board, and in 1992-93, a new layer of leadership was created with the addition of committees. Also in 1992-93, students initiated two important new components: SERVE Work was created as an information and support service for students interested in careers and internships in social change, and Issue Coordinators were added in an effort to add a more serious reflection component to our programs, and to ensure more effective placement of students.
Since 1993, students have continued to build and refine SERVE's student leadership structure while increasing service opportunities for the campus community through the creation of many new programs over the years. These programs have included one-day opportunities such as Community Plunge and Acting on the Dream. More recently, ongoing local programs such as Volunteers Involved Every Week (VIEW), and alternative break programs such as Alternative Weekends (AW), North American Summer Service Team (NASST), and Pangea World Service Team (PWST) have been established.
By offering both short and long term projects, SERVE encourages students to incorporate service into their college experience in whatever capacity possible. Students have also created an Issue Education and Awareness Team that is dedicated to educating the campus, SERVE leadership team members, site leaders, and participants about the social issues that they are addressing.