UH Hilo students leave their mark on Legacy Wall
For three days this week, students wrote their commitment to community service on colorful paper handprints and posted them on the “Make Your Mark” Legacy Wall on exhibit at the UH Hilo Library Lanai.
Students at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo expressed their commitment to community service this week on the “Make Your Mark” Legacy Wall displayed at the Mookini Library Lanai. For three days, Mar. 10-12, students wrote their commitment to community service on colorful paper handprints and posted them on the wall.
The project is sponsored by UH Hilo’s Office of Applied Learning Experiences, commonly called ALEX.
“The Legacy Wall is handprints, so it’s like putting your imprint on society, on things that you’ve done,” explains UH Hilo student Debra Cannoles, a business and accounting major who is the ALEX mentorship program coordinator and who works part-time at the register’s office. She says the handprints show the legacy students will leave behind and what they’ve contributed.
“The purpose of the wall, too, is that when other people read it and they see what other people have done, they can be inspired and it gives them ideas of how they can contribute,” says Cannoles. “I think at the university it’s important because we all learn about our subject matter but not a lot of people learn about giving back.”
She notes some individuals grow up with parents who volunteer and some do not. “So that’s what we’re trying to instill here in the Legacy Wall, getting people to open up and realize that volunteering is something that helps other people, it helps the community.”
The Legacy Wall started last year. The “Make Your Mark” campaign is managed by student intern Marina Agdeppa, the ALEX event planning intern who is coordinating other interns working on the project.
Tom Dewitt, associate professor of marketing and the director of ALEX, says the Legacy Wall is the second step in a three-step process in getting students to reflect on “how they can help to change the world through community service.”
“The whole purpose (of the Legacy Wall) is to get students to reflect on community service and the idea of a personal legacy,” says Dewitt. “Most people don’t think of legacy until they get older.”
Last week, through ALEX, about one hundred students performed a “Legacy Meter” self-assessment with 12 questions to gauge their capacity for community service based on their experiences thus far.
Next week, students can attend the ALEX Spring 2015 Volunteer Fair, Wednesday, Mar. 18, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Mookini Library Lanai. There will be 11 non-profit organization present at the fair to offer students volunteering opportunities.
“We want to engage students in a conversation,” Dewitt says. “Everything that we do is designed to engage students on a personal level and make them think about where they are now, where they want to be, and how they’re going to get there.”
About the author of this story: Kara Nelson is a senior at UH Hilo double majoring in English and Communication. She is an intern in the Office of the Chancellor and writer for UH Hilo Stories.
Photos by Kara Nelson except where noted.
