After listening to speakers such as Mayor Greg Fischer and keynote speaker Delquan Dorsey, executive director for the Governor’s Office for Minority Empowerment, the group headed out into the Parkland community to collect trash and to help beautify the community.
“We have been doing this program for about six years now with the university,” said Pam Curtis, director of the Office of Civic Engagement, Leadership and Service. “Every person in this room could have done anything else today that they wanted to do, but they chose to be here.”
Meagan Stites, a 2012 UofL graduate, said she is proud of the student body’s motivation to serve and volunteer in the many diverse communities of Louisville.
“I think UofL really has a strong sense of service. Most of these kids could be sleeping in until noon or later or doing homework. Instead, they gave up their day off,” said Stites, who joined the students.
Many different student groups were represented this year including sorority and fraternity members as well as members of the women’s field hockey and soccer teams. The large and diverse group of students impressed Fischer.
“When you see this sea of students out here saying, ‘I want to make this community a better place through service,’ it’s who we are as a city, and to see these folks stepping up and doing this says a lot about UofL and the type of person who’s at UofL,” Fischer said.
The MLK service day is just one of the many different service opportunities put on by campus as and community groups that keep UofL students active within the community throughout the year.