Nearly 40 Illinois State University students rolled up their sleeves on Friday, April 12, to give back to their campus and local community during the Center for Civic Engagement’s Bring it Back to Normal (BIBTN) service event.
From cleaning up local parks to tagging trees in the Fell Arboretum, the students embraced one of the University’s core values: civic engagement. Volunteers participated in service at Home Sweet Home Ministries, Normal Parks and Recreation, the Fell Arboretum, and the Office of Sustainability at Illinois State.
Before volunteers were sent out to their respective locations, President Aondover Tarhule shared his excitement and support for how students are helping to cultivate the relationship between the University and community. He said this experience offers students the chance to grow outside of the classroom.
“Students come here not to just get a degree, but to discover themselves and their passions,” said Tarhule. “Civic engagement is one of our core values, and the students here are living that core value. Having our students visible in the community doing something important is a great way for them to connect with the community and give back.”
As an event run primarily by students, BIBTN provides students the opportunity to gain leadership experience.
Senior political science and business major Dante Casamento heard about the opportunity to be a site leader from a friend and thought it would be a great way to get involved.
“I’m a big believer in the benefits of community service, and even as a college student, getting involved in your campus and local community is a good thing to be doing,” said Casamento. “I’m most excited for the weather today, and I’ve never tagged trees before, so learning about something new will be fun.”
Afiwa TETE, an assistant director of co-curricular programs in the Center for Civic Engagement who oversees the Bring it Back to Normal event, believes students get more out of this experience while giving back to the community.
“I think is really rewarding for students to network with others of diverse backgrounds as they’re learning more about civic engagement and going into community,” said TETE.
Sydney Metternich, the Fell Arboretum outreach coordinator, was excited to have students help tag trees for the BIBTN event and provide them a better understanding of what the arboretum is.
Illinois State’s Fell Arboretum was granted status in 1995 from the International Society of Arboriculture and consists of a 490 acre site throughout the Quad and other areas of campus established with thousands of trees representing over 225 species. Its history is rich with Jesse Fell’s vision of planting trees that flourish in Central Illinois. A comprehensive list of all the trees, their locations, and where they’re from can be viewed on the map students were helping to update during the event.
“The Fell Arboretum really serves the community as far as a place to come and look at all the trees, but also for student learning in a lot of different classes,” said Metternich. “The Fell Arboretum is not necessarily always known by a lot of students and the fact that it surrounds us all is kind of cool.”
Sophia Reavley, a greenhouse gardener for the Department of Biology assists Metternich with tagging and cataloguing the trees around campus. She expressed the importance of educating students about the trees that surround them on a daily basis.
“Events like this are important because it gets students to notice something they wouldn’t have before,” said Reavley. “We’ve had some students say that they’ve seen the tags on the Quad and not known what they were and why they’re there. So now, even if we just have these 20 students out here, they’ll know why they’re there and I think that’s really important.”
This experience was eye-opening for students who may have previously not known what the Fell Arboretum is or participated in a civic engagement event before. This was the case for senior Sofia Santamaria and junior Trey Edwards, members of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA), who were volunteering with the rest of the PRSSA executive board members.
“I didn’t know that the entire campus was the Fell Arboretum,” said Santamaria. “Trey is our incoming community engagement director, so this is a cool experience for him to see what it’s like to be a part of the community and hopefully continue to do events like this next year with PRSSA.”
Despite windy conditions, the volunteers made the best of their time outside enjoying the sunshine and each’s other’s company while making a difference.
“I’ve had a great time so far,” said Edwards. “Going with people and working together has made it a lot of fun and I’ve learned a lot.”
