Back After Winter Break, Oxy Students Plunge Into Community Work

Just four days after they returned to Eagle Rock following their winter break on Tuesday, many Occidental College students will be kicking off the first weekend of the spring semester with a dose of community service in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday was celebrated across the nation this week.

Besides working at Eagle Rock High School and Reach Our Community Kids (ROCK) on Yosemite Drive, Oxy volunteers will be giving back to the community at a range of local and regional organizations, including the Downtown Women's Shelter, East Los Angeles YMCA, Hathaway Sycamores, Wildlife Waystation, Pasadena’s Ronald McDonald House, and the Solano Canyon Community Garden.

Oxy’s MLK Day of Service, as the volunteering effort is dubbed, is the brainchild of the Office of Community Engagement,

“This is the beauty of the annual MLK Day of Service,” Ella Turenne, Oxy’s assistant dean of civic engagement, was quoted as saying on the college’s website. “We are honoring the great work of Dr. King by forming sustainable relationships with community organizations.”

The idea is to marry classroom work with the outside world. “By introducing students to the work being done in the community, they can make connections with what they're learning in the classroom,” Turenne said, adding: “This often turns into continued action as some return to the sites to serve as interns or volunteers.”

Related: Oxy Helps Build Community Literacy