By Hal Milam
Presbyterian College's Latin motto -- Dum Vivimus Servimus -- is perhaps the single most oft-evoked phrase on campus. It is featured with some degree of regularity in conversation, in speeches and in print.
Of greater importance than frequency, however, is veracity -- and there are few other ideals as active and true in the minds and deeds of PC students than service.
In other words, PC students are very much alive. And they are serving.
For 35 years, the focus for most service on campus has been supplied by Student Volunteer Services. SVS is, in a sense, Dum Vivimus Servimus personified -- a visible, tangible resource that connects the PC community with the world outside the campus and the individual student to something much more profound.
SVS is, as associate dean of students Shelia Hill describes it, "the manifestation of service as a college value."
"It's more than just a group or an organization," she said. "It's what we do."
Not only is service a large part of what PC does but also it is a large part of what PC believes. It is a large part of what PC is -- an institution founded on Christian principles that very much include service.
SVS' organizational origins are rooted in the mid-1960s. It was, of course, a time of great social turbulence. It was a time of racial tension and foreign war. It was a time of shifting norms for young people. It was a time of activism and action. It was a time of change.
In the midst of all those changes outside the dormitories and classrooms came change from within sparked by the ideas of a few. One of those -- former professor, counselor and chaplain Dr. Jack Presseau -- would rally students and faculty members and the college itself to embrace volunteerism not just as an activity, but as a mission.
"What we tried, basically, was to be Christian in our daily lives," he said. "I was brought up that way. I was taught that faith and deed go hand in hand -- that we, as Christians, are to help those who were hurting most and be a witness to what we believe."
Surrounding the PC campus of the 1960s was a community that wasn't immune to the social ills of its time -- poverty, illiteracy and racial strife. On campus, however, there was a growing desire to do something about it.
"There were a lot of idealistic people in the '60s who wanted to make a statement with what they did," Presseau said.
And so they took action.
Responding to a call from the pastor of Todd Memorial Presbyterian Church in Laurens, a group of students from Presseau's Christian Education class started the college's first Child Outreach Program in 1966. College students provided mill-area children with weekly programs that combined education, recreation and Biblical instruction.
But Presseau wanted to see more than just a surge of good will aimed at the surrounding community. He wanted Presbyterian College students and, more so, the college itself, to embrace volunteerism as a guiding principle. Presseau believed that in order for a student-led volunteer corps to survive over time, it would have to be as much a part of the college's landscape as Neville Hall.
"Things like this have to be institutionalized to make it," he said, adding that PC had a perfect role model for planting ideas, fertilizing them with faith and feeding them with commitment until they took root and grew. PC's earliest volunteers only needed to look at the college's founder -- William Plumer Jacobs -- as an example.
"He was great at getting things started with volunteers," Presseau said. "That's how the college and Thornwell got started. He would have an idea and get people involved and, before you know it, those ideas became reality. We did that with SVS."
There were obstacles, of course. Mill-community churches didn't always welcome mill-community children. And schools in the mid-60s still operated under a cloud of racial tension. Presseau credits early contacts with African-American leaders like James and Alvenes Barksdale of Clinton for easing some of those tensions and eventually creating partnerships that benefited community and college alike.
In the early 1970s, PC received a grant from the Presbyterian denomination's boards of Christian education and National Ministries to fund -- for three years -- a full-time SVS director. The Rev. Sydney T. Ayer Jr., who had worked with students as a Clinton resident, was selected for the position and SVS blossomed.
But in its embryonic stages, said Presseau, growth wasn't the issue. Survival was.
"We didn't have time to think about (growth)," he said. "We couldn't look that far ahead. We were busy trying to challenge the students and the college and channel some of those resources out into the community. But we did believe (SVS) had long-term potential."
It has to feel good to be right. With more than two-dozen programs served by approximately a third of the student body at PC, SVS continues to serve as an active reminder that the college's motto isn't just a pack of words.
According to Presseau, it is the commitment of the students and the college that ensures SVS' future. It just makes sense, he said, for a church-supported college to encourage its students to serve God by serving others. It also makes sense, he added, to ask students to volunteer without requiring them to. A mandate to serve should come from the heart -- not a page from the student handbook.
Students themselves drive SVS. It is, after all, "Student" Volunteer Services.
"Our program is all student-led," said Hill. "They make the critical decisions. They embrace that responsibility."
They also are most responsible for sustaining SVS over the years.
"It's up to the students to convince others of the value of service -- of being a Christian and a humanitarian," Presseau said. "I think it's important that each generation recruit and train others to keep the tradition intact. A lot of students come from that tradition and are able to draw people who have experience as volunteers and who desire to express their faith through service."
Former SVS coordinator Fanchon Glover, an alumna of PC who is now the director of multicultural programs at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, credits much of the college's volunteer success to the leadership of student interns who give direction to their peers.
"They are so connected to the campus and what's going on," she said. "They have the enthusiasm to make things happen."
In 1990, Glover inherited 15 SVS programs. By the time she left the college in 1996, the number of programs increased to approximately 30. Again, she credits the students themselves for making new opportunities for PC to give their time off campus.
"My contribution to SVS was in selecting very good interns who had a passion for service and were not afraid to shake the bushes," she said. "... I think I added some organizational structure but as my role at PC started to change -- through my work with the choir and minority affairs -- the role the interns played in SVS became very important."
Not that coordinators have no role to play in the development of student volunteers.
"Coordinators are symbolic," said Presseau. "They are the pied pipers. They're the ones who get out the word and get people hooked on the idea of volunteering."
On the other end of the relationship SVS has with the community are those organizations or people who need volunteers. SVS serves a variety of community needs and serves a variety of people. Volunteers work with students in the public schools and at Thornwell Home and School for Children. They visit nursing homes and serve Meals on Wheels to "shut-ins." They teach adults to read. They visit with dying patients in their homes. They listen to battered women. They mentor CHAMPS program participants. They cheer Special Olympians to victory.
Why?
There is no single answer, argue Hill and Presseau, because there is no typical student volunteer.
There are some students, said Presseau, who were veteran volunteers before they ever made their way to PC and chose to attend the college because it has a strong student volunteer program. "They sign up from day one," he said. Others follow their peers and go along for the ride, then get hooked on the idea of helping others. Some students have what may be considered an ulterior motive -- volunteerism looks good on a job resume. Some simply have to volunteer because it's a course requirement or they've joined a campus organization that mandates public service.
"Some just love hanging out with kids," said Hill. "There is no such thing as a typical SVS volunteer."
Volunteers come in all shapes, sizes and ideologies, said Presseau.
"The wonderful thing about SVS is it picks up people from different ends of the spectrum -- conservative, liberal, evangelical. There is a broad spectrum of reasons for being a volunteer, which is important because it helps people understand each other's religious experiences."
Besides, said Presseau, the reasons why you volunteer may not be as important as the good deeds that get done.
"If you wait until your motivations are pure, you'll never get anything done," he said.
Volunteering provides its own rewards to college students at PC. If you are a Christian education major, said Hill, volunteering is a tool to learn more about ministry. If you are a psychology major, serving people who suffer from the social ills of our time can provide more lessons than a classroom lecture.
"I volunteered because it was fun," said recent graduate Amy Monroe. "It was time I could look forward to every week. I forgot all I had to do in school or whatever else was stressing me out at the time and just spend time serving someone else. I always feel good when I do things for others."
Through the volunteer programs, both student and community interact and improve the well-being of each.
"I think it is important to volunteer because there is always something we can give to a person in need," said Monroe. "It might be a hug, someone to listen to them or someone to play games with them.
"I think it is our responsibility to volunteer and help others. Volunteering often makes you step back and think about what is important in your life. It also keeps you from taking for granted all the blessings we receive on a daily basis."
Like Presseau said, it's the intrinsic value of SVS that rises to this occasion.
The rewards aren't lost on SVS staff either.
"I get to help a county I love, my home county," said Hill. "I guess that makes me a sucker for a phone call from an agency in need.
"Leading this office has reduced my own hours of personal service and sometimes I really miss that. But I have the satisfaction of knowing that we're creating opportunities for students to go out and learn from that experience of helping their fellow man."
Glover took with her some lasting memories -- one of the most poignant was her last.
"Transportation was always such an issue," she said. "We had a really old van that eventually raised some liability issues. But the students went out and put on a tremendous fundraising effort and matched costs with the college to buy a new van.
"The day before I left PC, I was blindfolded and taken downstairs. When they took the blindfold off, I was in the new van. They rode me all around the campus in that new van."
Glover also was the SVS coordinator when the organization celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1991.
"That was a real highlight," she said. "There was a video and in it you could really see how far SVS had come and how Dr. Presseau's vision had become a part of PC life as a whole."
There are certain benefits for organizations, groups and individuals who open their doors and hearts to the college volunteers. Hill, who grew up in nearby Waterloo, understands some of the needs in the community surrounding PC and tries to match those needs with students who are willing to help in those areas. Both she and Presseau understand that volunteer work often moves through cycles.
"It's interesting to look at the origins of the programs -- what began and what was cut over the years," said Presseau. "Some programs are eternal. Others change with student interest and community resources."
Even the numbers of volunteers fluctuate. While the raw number of volunteers peaked at 579 during the 1997-98 academic year, Hill said the level of commitment has grown.
"I'll take this year's commitment level from students because I think commitment is more significant than just numbers," she said.
That level of commitment over the years has made SVS a known commodity -- and a needed one.
"There will always be a need for people to help others," said Presseau. "People know we're here in part because of the students who volunteer in the community."
It's a two-way street. Students become more aware of needs in Laurens County but also have their eyes opened to needs in society in a way that is real and not just studied. They work with real children and real adults and they see firsthand the faces and lives and hopes of people who need help.
For Monroe, it was, perhaps, the face of an older man that will forever remind her that her time and efforts were truly meaningful.
"The volunteer moment I will always remember is making Valentine's Day cards at Senior Options with a man that has Alzheimers," she said. "The smile on his face when he completed the card full of glitter and a heart is one I will not ever forget. He gave me a huge hug and thanked me several times.
"He got so much enjoyment out of making a simple card that it made me stop and think."
SVS has grown and evolved and undoubtedly will continue to contribute to the growth and evolution of students who bless other people with their sacrifice of time and talents.
"I think SVS is going to continue to evolve," said Presseau. "I see it becoming a more complex organization, incorporating service learning where professors require students to serve as part of their classroom responsibilities. I can see scholarships being offered for service."
No matter how the programs shift or the organization changes, SVS will almost certainly remain focused on the relationship between students and the mission of Presbyterian College.
Of living. And serving. And being served by the experience.
"The students will tell you this," said Presseau. "They feel more blessed than the people they serve."
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