RSS Channels IndexOver 100 from Loyola’s Medical School Support Their Community
Newswise — MAYWOOD, Ill. – In a powerful show of commitment, more than 100 students, faculty and staff from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine spent the day volunteering alongside their Maywood neighbors.
Loyolans gardened, painted and cleaned sites throughout Maywood during Stritch’s Annual Day of Service, held this year on August 4. The event is designed to introduce new students to their Maywood neighbors as well as solidify Loyola’s commitment to the community. This is just one way Stritch students are living out one of Loyola University Chicago’s core values of service to the world.
“We commemorate the start of the new school year by serving others,” said Alicia Kurtz, fourth-year medical student and Day of Service volunteer. “It’s our way of demonstrating to Maywood what we mean when we say, ‘We care about you as a community, and not just as people we are going to learn from.’ I think that’s very important.”
Virginia McCarthy, assistant director for Stritch’s Center for Service and Global Health, worked with representatives from other Maywood organizations to coordinate projects for the volunteers. These included Maywood Fine Arts, the ENRICH Natural Learning Center community garden, St. Eulalia Church, West Suburban PADS emergency homeless shelter, Walther Lutheran High school and local parks.
“Loyola is of Maywood, not just in Maywood,” said McCarthy. “We want to be intentional about what we do here.”
In preparation for their service, first-year students were briefed by returning students regarding Stritch’s ongoing service programs in Maywood and Proviso Township. This student-to-student exchange emphasized the school’s social justice culture and helped match student interests with service opportunities. The goal, according to McCarthy, was to create sustainable service projects and form a greater sense of community.
This year the impact of working alongside other community members during the service day was meaningful for Stritch students.
“At a middle school we worked with parents who were also having a day of service. It was interesting to work alongside them, talking as we pulled weeds and worked together to make their children’s school look nice for the start of their school year,” Kurtz said.
During the course of the day, students learned how service projects can form the basis of capstone research or scholarship as required by Stitch’s honors programs. They began to see the link between direct action of the Day of Service and academic excellence—and they didn’t have to look far to find it.
“It’s nice that the very first service event we do as students is right here,” Kurtz added.
For media inquiries, please contact Evie Polsley at epolsley@lumc.edu or call (708) 216-5313 or (708) 417-5100.
NOTE: Photos Available
The Loyola University Chicago Health Sciences Division (HSD) advances interprofessional, multidisciplinary, and transformative education and research while promoting service to others through stewardship of scientific knowledge and preparation of tomorrow's leaders. The HSD is located on the Health Sciences Campus in Maywood, Illinois. It includes the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, the Stritch School of Medicine, the biomedical research programs of the Graduate School, and several other institutes and centers encouraging new research and interprofessional education opportunities across all of Loyola University Chicago. The faculty and staff of the HSD bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and a strong commitment to seeing that Loyola's health sciences continue to excel and exceed the standard for academic and research excellence. For more on the HSD, visit LUC.edu/hsd.
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