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Wilkes exposes incoming freshmen to volunteering, community

July 14, 2009

Service connection

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – Trisha Kapes graduated from Hazleton Area High School in June knowing she wanted to be a nurse. After her experience Monday, the 18-year-old thinks she knows what kind.

Kapes, of Sugarloaf Township, was one of 260 incoming Wilkes University freshmen spread throughout Luzerne County on Monday participating in community service projects as part of their orientation.

She and 21 other soon-to-be freshmen, mostly nursing and pharmacy students, were at Little Flower Manor on Meade Street conversing with elderly residents and pushing their wheelchairs for walks around the block.

She said the experience has helped her decide that geriatric nursing might be the right fit for her.

“I found out I like this environment,” said Kapes.

While shaping one’s career path isn’t the goal of the program, it’s certainly a welcome side-effect, said Megan Boone, community service coordinator for the college.

Katie Aldinger, a junior nursing major from York, oversaw a group of students at Little Flower. She said the opportunity to interact with the senior citizens offers an immediate benefit to the facility’s residents and a long-term one for nursing students.

She said it prepares students for what they’ll encounter as nurses -- prepping them for basics such as “simple eye contact, interaction with patients” and other things you can’t learn in a classroom.

“It’s a good thing. It gets their feet wet. Everyone has the jitters of talking to their patients,” Aldinger said.

Marjorie Whispell, who will major this fall in biology/secondary education major, saw the mandatory requirement as a positive.

“It gives me the chance to say I went somewhere and helped my community,” said Whispell, a Jenkins Township resident who graduated from Pittston Area last month.

Kapes said she’d likely look for volunteer opportunities as well.

That’s the program’s goal: to introduce Wilkes students to the volunteer and community service opportunities out there.

“Getting them involved in their community gives them a connection to the area,” Boone said.

And also to get the students interacting with fellow students in their majors to perhaps make connections and friends before the first day of school.

“The projects during orientation are designed to introduce students to each other, to the community, and to the concept of a life-long commitment to community service,” said Mark Allen, Wilkes’ dean of students.

Helping hand

The following 14 organizations had Wilkes incoming freshmen helping them out Monday:

New Seasons; Kingston Commons; Wyoming Valley Children’s Association; Association for the Blind; Volunteers of America; VISION; Forty Fort Shady Tree Commission; Candy’s Place; Step By Step; Little Flower Manor; Weinberg Food Bank; St. Vincent DePaul Soup Kitchen; McGlynn Learning Center; and Ruth’s Place of Hope.

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