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With diverse service projects such as preparing a community holiday dinner to hosting a journalism workshop for high school students, students at the University at North Carolina at Chapel Hill are continuing a strong tradition of public service in North Carolina with the help of the Seagraves Service Grants.


With diverse service projects such as preparing a community holiday dinner to hosting a journalism workshop for high school students, students at the University at North Carolina at Chapel Hill are continuing a strong tradition of public service in North Carolina with the help of the Seagraves Service Grants.

The Carolina Center for Public Service recently presented the grants to 11 officially recognized UNC student organizations to support public service projects addressing identifiable needs statewide. The projects showcase Carolina’s longstanding commitment to public service and engagement.

A UNC alumnus established the grants in honor of his grandmother, Mildred Yeager Seagraves. Now in its sixth and final year, the program provided a total of $3,000 annually to student organizations. Grantees received up to $300 to fund their proposed service projects during the 2009-2010 academic year.

The following projects received funding this year: 

•    The Immigration Law Association at UNC will provide legal information and power of attorney clinics to immigrants in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at Durham Technical Community College and elementary schools in Chapel Hill and Durham. Their goal is to ensure immigrants know their legal rights if they are stopped, arrested or detained.
•    UNC Habitat for Humanity and Habitat for Humanity Orange County will organize a catered holiday dinner as a community building program for members of Fairview housing community in Hillsborough.
•    The Carolina Association of Black Journalists and the N.C. Scholastic Media Association will pair up to host 12 to 15 high school students from underserved areas of North Carolina to attend a journalism workshop one weekend in February.
•    The American Medical Students Association at UNC will provide basic first aid and personal health supplies as well as a brief health-system orientation to recently resettled refugees who are clients of World Relief and will conduct health screenings within the Orange County Burmese Community.
•    The Lambda Law Students Association of UNC, in partnership with Equality NC, will organize a legal information presentation and counsel same-sex couples as they complete health care power of attorney paperwork to designate their partner for health care decision-making and visitation.
•    The Student National Medical Association at UNC and Citizens School will teach girls of lower socio-economic backgrounds how to maintain a healthy life-style through group exercise set to Latin music in their project, ZumbaGirls.
•    Homeless Outreach Poverty Education (HOPE), a project of the UNC Campus Y, and Housing for New Hope will provide twice-a-week creative writing workshops and publish “Talking Sidewalks,” a literary magazine written entirely by the men, women, and children living on the streets and in the shelters of Chapel Hill.
•    Las Guapitas, a sub-group of the Carolina Hispanic Association, in partnership with McDougle Middle School, will purchase books for Hispanic girls and will read and discuss the books with the girls to help improve their English reading comprehension.
•    The Community Empowerment Fund and Housing for New Hope will sponsor workshops to help the Latino population in Durham and Orange counties with small-business development, financial planning, resume-building, job searching, marketing, connections to service and computer literacy.
•    Members of  Epsilon Eta, the nation’s first environmental honors fraternity, at UNC will visit Seawell Elementary School every Thursday afternoon to lead an after-school science club for 3rd- to 5th-graders, especially English as a Second Language (ESL) students, whose activities will include gardening, recycling, craft projects and nature hikes.
•    The Carolina Taekwondo Club in partnership with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA will provide a supportive and energetic environment where middle school girls will gain confidence and improve self-esteem while learning self-defense through Project Safe Girls.

Carolina Center for Public Service contact: Elaine Tola, (919) 843-7568, etola@email.unc.edu
News Services contact: Susan Houston, (919) 962-8415, susan_houston@unc.edu

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