Reflections
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"The Bennion Center taught me that I can't do it all on my own. I learned SO much about working with others and bringing people together to get things done. But at the same time, I realized my true potential to make a difference. I know that I can do anything and be anyone I want to be with the skills & confidence that I gained during my time at the Bennion Center. I just hope that the surge of motivation from undergrad lasts all the way through med school!"
- Becca Wehunt, BS'07
"I am going to Madagascar for the Peace Corps. The Bennion Center introduced me to service and taught me the intrinsic value of interacting with and benefiting others as well as myself."
- Marshall McCormick, BA'07 BS'07
"When a freshman, I was introduced to the Lowell Bennion Center…Five years later, I have invested myself in a number of challenging and yet meaningful and rewarding projects, empowering me to address and materialize my passion of helping build more sustainable, healthy communities...
Through service to the microorganisms devouring added compost materials, building gardens to grow food and share with the community, educating youth and working with university students about environmental and social health issues, I have learned much about the possibilities of instigating positive change through civic engagement, and bringing people together...
My experiences with the Bennion Center have helped shaped my perspectives on my role in life and instilled within me a culture of service to the community...Click here to read more"
- Alex Parvaz, BA'06 BS'06
When I started attending the University of Utah in 2004, I was looking for a system of support that could help me progress and maneuver through such a huge institution. I knew diversity was my niche. The Bennion Center is where I found it all - a cool place to hang, a place to practice and develop my leadership and a place to meet friendly and different people.
I remember my first Alternative Spring Break trip to LA working for the AIDS Project Los Angeles and how much fun and how educational it was. I learned so much about myself, about others and about the world. I had no idea that folks living with HIV and AIDS were still just normal regular people filled with promise, ambition and hope. I also had no idea that my site leader and peers were so open to things outside of "Salt Lake City" especially open to me-a real trouble maker. The next year when I was an ASB Site Leader I took my students back to LA and boy did they learn a lot from serving at the food bank, going to a gay club and attending a late night talk show. So different from Salt Lake. Mostly they learned about diversity and today after being an ASB Site Leader and being the one of the first to live in the Service House (drafting the mission and integrating diversity values), I am the Director of YouthWorks, a pre-employment drug and alcohol prevention program aimed at youth success.
My success has always been through the success of others and for those who impacted me at the Bennion Center I make that contribution back to the community in which I live and work. I am diversifying the community by exploring diversity issues among the youth and through their diversity helping them to succeed. Thanks, Bennion Center, for accepting the diversity within me."
- Clif Uckerman, BS'06
"I enjoyed my four years of working for America Reads. I felt that I was involved in the community by having the opportunity to work at different elementary schools. I loved each moment of helping a student learn and progress in education and I valued each child's culture and background and what they had to offer. I loved the people I worked with and felt supported and encouraged. The hours were flexible for me to focus on my classes. I'm so grateful I was able to find this great program!"
- JoLynn Meirovitz, BS'05
"I was lucky enough to attend Project Youth as a sixth grade student in 1995. The experience of being mentored by college students as I toured the amazing University of Utah campus was an indelible one. Despite coming from a family of educated parents and older siblings, I had little exposure to the scope of activities, programs and multi-faceted educational opportunities available in a university setting. Later, as a college student, I became involved with the very program that inspired and enlightened me as a child. I have been involved with Project Youth for five years (including the privilege of serving as co-director) and I am thrilled that I can continue to share this mind-opening experience with sixth-graders every year."
- Barbara Thorton, former student director
" The Bennion Center provided the foundation for my cherished college memories. I lived at home to save money and the Bennion Center gave me a niche on campus for four and a half years. While directing Helping Hands Helping Hearts for a year, I developed leadership skills and greater confidence. I learned to organize regular activities and recruited volunteers and send out schedules of activities. I also gained lasting insights talking to homeless men and women as we served side by side in the community.
That experience also helped me to later to be more supportive of other young or inexperienced leaders. When I directed Helping Hands Helping Hearts I was 18 and some of those who volunteered for my project were working on their master's degree and obviously had far more experience and skills than I did. However, they were willing to pitch in a hand and help out. Theirs is an example I try and follow.
At the University of Utah I enjoyed deep philosophical talks with other volunteers in the Bennion Center. The center attracted such good, interesting, talented people -- and most importantly idealists like me. It was great coming into the center and chilling on bean bags attempting to solve the problems of the universe.
My service experience and associations also opened up other opportunities while on campus, like helping with a successful student body campaign, taking independent study with a favorite professor and getting paid to work as a service-learning teaching assistant.
There's so much more I could say. Service healed my inner wounds, brought me joy, expanded my horizons, blessed me with friends, and brightened my perspective. My experience as a Service-Learning Scholar also allowed me to gain skills that helped me qualify for the workforce and for serving inside my family, church and community.
Today, I strive to see service as bigger than just a scheduled project, but as a manner in which I live. It's easy to become obssessed in living up with the Jones' in a world with superficial definitions of success. An attitude of service is imperative to keep from getting caught up in materialism. I often attempt to remind myself to take Lowell Bennion's advice and learn to enjoy life's simple pleasures and refuse to be controlled by the likes and dislikes of others."
- Karen Lambert, BA'02
"The Bennion Center most definitely impacted who I am and the career path that I chose. I simply cannot imagine going to work at a job each day without feeling like I am doing SOMETHING to make some sort of a positive impact in the world. Although my job is tough (teaching students with academic challenges in a low-income, inner city school), I can honestly say that, most days, I can come home and feel like I have made some sort of a difference... and that is part of the Bennion center living on in my heart."
- Sonja Davidson, BS'01
"I am so very proud that I could be a part of the Community efforts at Bennion Center during the time I was working on my Master's degree at the U. The time I spent and the people I met while I was at the U was certainly very much enriched by the time I spent at the center. Wow 20 years of anniversary service - go Bennion."
- Ruth Anderson, MS'00
"For the past four years, I have been involved in ASB. I have had the opportunity to help lead trips to Tijuana, Seattle and Portland. I have witnessed first-hand how ASB impacts students lives. An important part of students' engagement is on the trip; however, the impact reaches beyond just Spring Break. Many of the students that I have traveled with continue to be involved in issues and ways to improve our community long after the trip.
Students who have the opportunity to go on ASB learn about how other communities are working to address issues such as poverty, health care, hunger, homelessness, recycling and sustainability. They learn how members of other communities are working toward possible solutions. Then, they come home and continue to be engaged in possible solutions. Students also learn how to work together. Given that many of the issues that we learn about cannot be solved by one person - no matter how diligent the efforts, ASB offers a learning environment that requires students to face head-on the challenges of wrangling with multiple issues and solutions.
They learn together just how challenging it is to work for commonality when numerous solutions and competing interests are present. In ways that cannot always happen in the classroom, students are engaged with important social and environmental problems and must work toward and together for possible solutions.
One of the most unfortunate things about ASB is that more students do not have the opportunity to go. It costs money. Some students on our campus do not have access to extra funds that they would need to go. ASB gets some funding to offset costs, we fundraise and we have a small about of money to offer scholarships. However, I know that more students would take advantage of this opportunity if cost was not a barrier."
- Liz Leckie, BA'97 MA'99
""The Bennion Center had a lasting impact on my life.
I was involved at the Bennion Center between 1992-1995, mainly in environmental projects. The planet may be in worse shape than ever, but the Bennion Center planted seeds of change in me. I continue to volunteer in my community and I am teaching my children the values of justice, awareness, kindness, and responsibility.
Best of luck to the Bennion Center for the next 20 years."
- Becky (Larsen) Hull, BA'96
"The Bennion Center introduced me to Native issues and volunteering...I have been working in Alaska Native Health care since graduating from family medicine residency in 2003...I trace my interest in medicine to volunteering through the Bennion Center's Campus AIDS Project for the Utah AIDS Foundation."
- Marin Granholm, BS'96
"I started at the Bennion Center shortly after it had opened and I was part of the first group of Rotary Interns. I was excited about the addition of the Bennion Center because I wanted an organized means to volunteer. I come from a family that is service-oriented and I spent my childhood volunteering in nursing homes. My family visited the elderly without any family members and hosted holiday parties. There were a lot of holidays that I spend in a nursing home. I had difficulty finding volunteer opportunities as I grew up. I think that non-profits want volunteers, but they don’t always have a way to respond to calls, train volunteers or organize them. I think that the Bennion Center provides a structure that allows volunteerism to be a good experience for the volunteer and the non-profit organization.
The Bennion Center also provided wonderful hands-on training. I learned more from my volunteer work than any of my course work. Some of the skills I learned were academic such as planning and evaluation. More importantly, I learned interpersonal skills such as communication, team building and motivation. The most important quality I gained from my work at the Bennion Center is resourcefulness. As interns, we often had projects without the resources to meet the needs of the project. This has been true throughout my career, and I have always been creative in meeting the needs of an individual or organization with limited resources.
I have worked in non-profit organizations serving the medically underserved since graduation. I am currently the Executive Director of Midtown Community Health Center. Our mission is to make health care accessible to those who don’t have access due to financial, language or cultural barriers.
My favorite memory of the Bennion Center is when we made giant pictures of the Maurice Sendak characters from Where the Wild Things Are and hung them in the hallways of the Union Building. We wanted people to know that volunteering is fun and requires imagination. The Bennion Center helps people appreciate what they gain from volunteerism, not on what they are giving."
- Lisa Nichols, BA'89 MSW'91
"I have tried to maintain my connection to the Bennion Center and have been involved in community problems as my time permits. I believe the ultimate Bennion Center mission is one of educating students by providing the tools necessary for the effective participating in their own communities once they leave the University. The Center’s capacity to affect the world goes beyond the immediate satisfaction of needs in the present to the impact Bennion Center volunteers will have as they find in their own communities. This thought gives me great hope for our collective future...Click here to read more"
- Patrick McCabe, HBA'89
"The Bennion Center provided me with a framework to transform idealism and compassion into action within the community."
- John Pingree, BA'89 BS'90
