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Sophomore Saira Husain traveled to Karachi, Pakistan,��during summer 2009 to volunteer with the nonprofit Children�s Museum for Peace and Human Rights. She worked on a disability rights campaign, encouraging children to urge the government to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

�Pakistan doesn�t have services for people with disabilities,� says Husain, a sophomore President�s Scholar from Southlake, Texas, who is majoring in biology and anthropology. �The children are so excited to learn they can help by collecting signatures.���

Husain was one of nine students awarded a stipend this summer as a Maguire and Irby Family Public Service Intern from �鶹��s Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. This fall at �鶹��, Husain has found other ways to serve, including with Habitat for Humanity.������

�I�ve learned that all of our little steps together do take us closer to our larger goals,� she says. �Whatever career you pursue, you need to know your community�s needs.�

SMU offers students numerous opportunities to serve communities in North Texas and beyond. Through the Office of Leadership and Community Involvement (LCI), 2,500 students volunteer with more than 70 Dallas-area agencies every year, says director Carol Clyde.

��鶹�� tries to help students become leaders in a global society,� Clyde says. �Through service, students learn what it means to be part of a larger community, and the community benefits from their energy and skills.�

LCI matches students with organizations that need their help through �鶹��s MustangTrak database. Students also serve the community through programs in their schools, Greek and student organizations and campus ministries.

Joe Cooper, a sophomore business major from Plano, Texas, and a forward on the men�s soccer team, partnered with student leaders at �鶹�� Catholic Campus Ministry during spring 2009. Together they organized a ministry fundraiser and soccer clinic for children from Dallas� Vickery Meadow neighborhood, home to thousands of international refugees. ��

�We originally were thinking just a few �鶹�� soccer players would help, but the whole team wanted to participate,� he says.

After teaching 40 children from around the world about passing, dribbling and shooting, the team hopes to make the clinic an annual event, Cooper says. �The kids learned from our drills, but it was more about having fun,� he says, �and it�s a chance for us to give something back.� ��

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Opportunities to serve:

• Service learning: In numerous courses, faculty connect coursework with community service.
  
• SMU Service House: Community service is a requirement for the 28 students who live in this former fraternity house.
  
• Academic Community Engagement (ACE) House: Four students live and work in this East Dallas house, where they and other �鶹�� students tutor neighborhood children.
  
• Students Promoting Awareness, Responsibility and Citizenship (SPARC): Among this campus-sponsored program�s projects are Alternative Winter and Spring Break, which send students across the country to serve.

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