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Just a day after moving in, all first-year students are being sent back off-campus.

“It’s about recognizing that 17c������� is a place within a community, and that community matters,” said sophomore Maaike Mudde.

A broader community

Mudde is the student coordinator for StreetFest—that takes place on Thursday, August 28. StreetFest introduces all first-year and transfer students to a commitment to service and learning that is central to a 17c������� education. Including faculty and staff mentors and student leaders, nearly 1,200 people from the 17c������� community are expected to participate.

The theme for the 22^nd edition of is ‘PLACE: Presence, Listening, Action, Commitment, Everyday.’

“If we’re not serving a place, we are committed to serving ourselves,” said Mudde.

An on-ramp

17c������� is partnering with 53 organizations for the one-day event, which will see students touring neighborhoods, gardening public spaces and organizing food pantries. Mudde hopes that the students who participate will see this as an on-ramp into service-learning like many 17c������� students have in the past. The recently released statistical report shows that 2,030 17c������� students participated in service-learning in 2013-2014, logging almost 55,000 hours. In addition, incorporated service-learning.

The report also shows that the college has 205 active agency partners, which includes the 53 organizations that are participating in StreetFest.

“We choose organizations that understand what we’re doing, those organizations that are committed to doing God’s Work in God’s World,” said Kruis. “We see ourselves as co-educators teaching students about neighbors, what they do, their purpose in the community and why it takes all these different organizations and missions to create a healthy community.”