Charles Dickens wrote long ago that charity begins at home. But by “home,” Dickens wasn’t exactly referring to Building 34 of the Apartment Area at the University of Miami, where the newly formed STRIVE community has given new meaning to both charity and home.

STRIVE (Serving Together Reaching Integrity, Values, and Engagement) is the first on-campus housing experience that focuses on leadership and civic engagement. A community of 15 upperclassmen and 16 freshmen who spend at least six hours a week participating in dozens of volunteer activities, STRIVE gives incoming students an opportunity to live with and be mentored by seasoned campus leaders. And by all accounts, these students have already changed hundreds of lives—including their own.

Lisa Maria Rhodes, a junior majoring in psychology and foreign languages, has served as both a mentor in the STRIVE community and as a resident assistant. “We painted a house for a family who lives near our campus,” Rhodes recalls. “There was a lien on their home, which was a house where several children lived. We were bettering their home so that it would pass inspection. When we finished painting, we sat down for group reflection and listened to each other about what we’d just done and what effects it would have. That’s something that really changed my perspective.”

“We’ve all heard about the affordable housing crisis going on all over the country—and in Miami in a large way—and it’s important to educate people on this issue,” says Johweyeh Lowenthal, a junior majoring in political science and a STRIVE volunteer who was also part of the painting brigade.

STRIVE is a concept developed last year by the Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development. The center, explains director Keith “Fletch” Fletcher, is the office that connects students to the community and the community at large to students. As Fletcher rattles off the numbers, it’s evident that students are exceeding their potential. “We had 98 applicants for 15 spots,” he says, “and when I went back and averaged what students are doing, it’s amazing. Students are required to do 24 hours a month of direct service, civic engagement, and leadership activities. But they’re averaging almost double that—a total of 47.23 hours per month.”

National trends show that students are more willing to roll up their sleeves and pitch in over the last few years, particularly since the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to the College Students Helping America report released by the federal Corporation for National and Community Service, college student volunteering increased 20 percent between 2002 and 2005, more than doubling the growth in the adult volunteering rate.

The report, which found that 3.3 million college students volunteered in 2005, also notes that most of the current college student volunteers it tracked were of high school age during the September 11 attacks. They witnessed the heroic response of police officers, firefighters, and other public servants who made tremendous personal sacrifices to guide victims and the nation through the traumatic event.

“I wanted to be involved right away because I was involved in community service in high school,” says freshman Heidi Masonick, a nursing major who was a counselor at the American Cancer Society’s Camp Enchantment and whose mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother all conducted charitable activities. “My heart just sees the need, and I feel so much fulfillment in it. It was an important part of the family I was raised in.”

And speaking of family, most members of STRIVE share a close, almost familial bond. “We’re all really kind of quiet and relaxed here. We stop by and say hello to each other and hang out. And we all basically talk about the same thing—community service,” says freshman Lauren Carey, a nursing major who also mentors a 14-year-old for Big Brothers Big Sisters. “We’re such a tight-knit group, and we know about everyone’s home life.”

“Just the fact that we can have an intelligent conversation about social issues on a daily basis and discuss how we can improve the world is unbelievable,” says Lowenthal.

It’s clear that all residents of Building 34 have fully dedicated themselves to improving the world, whether on the grand scale or just for one person at a time. This year for National Gandhi Day of Service, a campus-wide effort in honor of the legacy of Gandhi, STRIVE members threw a holiday party at a home for the elderly.

“We played games and dominoes, and we danced,” Rhodes says. “There was a lady who loved to dance merengue, and I was dancing with her. She had more energy than me. We learned about a population that’s often marginalized and almost invisible in society.”

Like many STRIVE residents, Rhodes is involved in several other campus volunteer organizations, including the University’s Alternative Breaks program. Students, faculty, and staff in this program spend one week during fall and spring vacations living in a community and volunteering at local agencies. UM students have volunteered in areas from Philadelphia to San Francisco on projects addressing issues like homelessness, the environment, and AIDS.

Shreya Agrawal, who also served on the National Gandhi Day of Service board, will not soon forget her experiences in the Alternative Breaks program after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast. Agrawal and a busload of UM students traveled to Mississippi and spent several days clearing muck out of houses, including one of a former city mayor.

“He had just come back from the hospital and wasn’t in any condition to clean up his house,” Agrawal recalls. “At the end, he took some of the drywall we’d torn down, wrote ‘Hurricane Katrina Relief’ on it, and had all of us sign it.”

Agrawal, a junior majoring in biology and international studies, sees things from a slightly different perspective. Born in Delhi, India, she grew up around poverty and hardship. “I know both sides, and that’s why I really want to do some kind of social service when I graduate. I’d like to do something like Doctors Without Borders.”

But what about creature comforts, like running water and electricity, that are taken for granted in the United States? To that, Agrawal says, “When we were in Mississippi, we were living in FEMA trailers, completely covered in muck, and it was no big deal. In India people are used to losing electricity. They’ve learned to work around it.”

Many UM student volunteers have learned that they don’t have to go as far away as India or Mississippi to witness homelessness and poverty. One of the resounding messages from students who’ve participated in various off-campus volunteer projects is that there is work to be done just blocks away from the University.

“We made a philosophical decision in the office to focus on South Miami and Coconut Grove,” Fletcher says. “My opinion is that our outreach shouldn’t overlook the impoverished neighborhoods around us.”

“When I heard we were going to do community service at graveyards, I was a little shocked,” says Heidi Masonick, describing what she thought was an unusual service project. “Then I realized we were honoring the people who helped us get to where we are. We cleaned the cemetery and scrubbed and painted the stones. It was touching, and it opened my eyes to what happens right outside the University.”

Indeed, several of the 41 student clubs and organizations at UM that offer some component of volunteerism focus on activities close to home. The Martin Luther King Day of Service is one such annual event. The theme of this year’s event was “I am the Dream.” UM students spent the day entertaining children at the South Miami Community Center, and the University of Miami’s United Black Students are planning a follow-up event to paint a mural there documenting the past, present, and future of the South Miami community. According to mural chair Barbara Joas, a junior majoring in motion pictures and psychology, Martin Luther King Jr. will be a key figure in the mural because he visited South Miami and the UM campus.

“The event promotes nonviolence and what Martin Luther King stood for,” Joas says. “We’re instilling these values that service to the community is important. I went to high school in Miami, and kids didn’t really feel like they were part of something big. But when they see all their peers painting a huge mural like this, they’ll understand their duty to the community.”

Of course, much like other University of Miami student volunteers, Joas has dreams of her own when it comes to continuing her commitment to service. “Eventually I want to start a center for young girls who have been emotionally abused. There are a lot of people who have survived that and a lot of children who, if they don’t receive emotional support, can’t make it on their own.”

Fletcher notes that after a big day of service, each student comes back with a very different reaction. “Some are very solemn after realizing how much poverty is so close to the University. Some are charged up,” he says. “A lot of students are in tears when they come back from sites. There’s a tendency by students to dehumanize and think nobody lives in these places, but that changes when you get there and they bring you lemonade in Dixie cups and they’re so appreciative of what you’re doing for them. Students leave with a sense that they made a difference.”

The Butler Center for Volunteer Service and Leadership Development this year has facilitated a minimum of one campus-wide program every weekend since student orientation. And applications for program involvement and executive boards have increased by more than 100 percent. It shows that STRIVE’s motto—“To live, to learn, to lead”—is alive and well on today’s college campuses.

Jill Bauer is a book author and freelance writer in Miami, Florida.