Collegiate Times

My breathing was labored and I moved as fast as I could, dodging bikes and students ambling around campus.  However, I wasn’t able to dodge the curious glances that seemed to ask, “What could be important enough to make you sprint across campus?”

When many Virginia Tech students see my book bag, and small stature (five feet with the flip-flops), they assume that I am just a silly freshman late to class. They do not know that I am a graduate student assistant at the Center for Student Engagement and Community Partnerships.

On this occasion, my government and international affairs class had run over, causing me to be late to CSCEP’s exciting weekly staff meeting in 1660 Litton Reaves. I was propelled to the meeting by the spirit of zoom.

I was wearing my favorite T-shirt, the orange tie-dyed “Hokies have a heart for service” shirt, and I aired out the shirt a bit as I slowed my breathing and entered the first floor of Litton Reaves.  I zoomed down the hall and did not pass go, did not collect two hundred dollars.

I normally swerve off my course to 1660 and stop by the office of Dr. Jim Dubinsky, CSECP director, to take in Dr. D’s daily dose of laughter and ask him which of his million projects needed my help, but not that day.

Nor did I take the time to stop in the office of Jake Grohs, CSECP’s assistant director for student engagement programs, to grab one of the coveted dark chocolates that he keeps on his desk. Even though I knew that the many student service club leaders and the freshman SERVE residential community members that regularly inhabit Jake’s office would later eat the chocolates, I refrained from the detour and kept zooming down the hall.

I did not stop by the office of  Karen Gilbert, assistant director of CSECP and coordinator of VT Engage, to get my daily smile and update on the newest developments with VT Engage or Town-CSECP relations, nor did I step into the office of Michele James-Deramo, director of Service-Learning, to hear her daily hello and get caught up on progress of the newest grant proposals, service-learning placements, Global Citizen Partnership exchanges, and Pilot Street Refugee project events.

I kept right on zooming down the hall to Litton Reaves 1660.

When I finally entered the windowless, cellular dead-zone of Litton-Reeves 1660, the CSECP storage room/graduate student office/staff meeting room, I smiled with relief knowing that I had made it just in time. I sat down at the table with the staff members whose offices I had just passed, ready to contribute my thoughts to the planning of the various programs on this week’s docket.

We were in the process of planning the next Gobblerfest, a yearly event showcasing community nonprofits and service-clubs to university students.

We also needed research suggestions for the Second Annual Global Dialogue for Responsibility, a new conference between faculty, graduate scholars and global nonprofit leaders.

Finally, we were choosing this year’s Ut Prosim-themed April 16, 2007 memorial events, not to mention checking up on the progress of the various service clubs, service-learning curricula, and study abroad service-learning programs.

I was able to sit at the table as an equal and suggest a new innovative international service-internship program which would combine our existing social entrepreneurship program with our service-learning exchange program.

I also updated the group on Ut Prosim El Porvenir, the Honduras community development partnership I facilitate.

So, I sit here writing this column in the “office of zoom,” as a staff member, as a student, and as a community member. Different individuals affiliated with CSECP will write from the spirit of zoom throughout the summer. They will share their experiences, their successes, their thoughts, and their questions with you. In return, we hope for suggestions, greater recognition from the university and community, and an opportunity spread the word about the great community partnerships and student engagement work going on at Tech.

We call ourselves the “office of zoom” because our staff is constantly busy managing and creating university-community partnerships and programs. I encourage you to join in the spirit of zoom as you follow CSECP’s weekly column throughout the summer.

A version of this article appeared in the Jun 3 issue of the Collegiate Times.