Students at the University of St. Thomas’ Cameron School of Business have found new ways to use their skills in business while giving back.
Service learning, which has been described by director Dr. Jean-Philippe Faletta as a program which connects community with academic study, is one way that UST demonstrates its commitment to community service, while still enhancing student experience inside the classroom. “Service-Learning is a particular kind of experiential learning, in which there is a reciprocal relationship between classroom and community,” Faletta said.
Service learning programs at UST span various courses and fields of study. For those studying Child Psychology, there is the opportunity to volunteer at local children’s agencies. Biology students can volunteer at an underserved Houston clinic, assisting with community gardens and helping develop middle and high school biology courses. Business students, meanwhile, have the chance to take part in one of the longest-running service learning programs at UST, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA). Through this service, students are offered practical experience with individual income tax preparation.
Through involvement with VITA, students have the opportunity to practically apply the tax rules learned in the classroom. Natalie Guillen, a BBA/MBA accounting student at Cameron, commented on the educational possibilities provided by such a unique program. “We got to apply the concepts that we learned in class,” she said. “It is a lot easier to understand how these tax rules help people when you have the chance to apply them in tax returns.”
Not only does VITA allow students on-the-job experience in their field, but it has major benefits for the community at large. VITA’s service includes historically disenfranchised groups, such as low-income individuals, those with disabilities, and those whose English skills may be limited.
For Natalie Guillen, VITA was an opportunity to help others while helping herself make decisions about her future career. “I changed my major from marketing to accounting and was still teetering about whether to go back to marketing, but when I did the volunteer work with VITA I found that I actually enjoyed it,” she said.