Through internships, volunteerism, and coursework, work with nonprofit organizations is embedded in the Bryant experience. Service learning projects focused on nonprofit partnerships are an integral feature to courses like Management 200: Principles and Practice, which pairs students with charitable organizations and is a required course for all sophomores.
Bryant’s third biannual Community Engagement Expo, hosted by the University’s Amica Center for Career Education, facilitated the creation of powerful partnerships by introducing students to more than 50 nonprofit organizations. Through the expo, students connected with a diverse group of nonprofits, including government agencies and military institutions; community action groups; health, education and environment organizations; and arts and culture groups.
Nwando Ofokansi, Education Programs Coordinator for The Katie Brown Educational Program, which works to promote respectful relationships by teaching relationship violence prevention, values her organization’s relationship with Bryant. “We’ve worked with management groups here in the past and it’s been really successful so we wanted to come back and make sure we could connect with Bryant University students again.”
Ofokansi says that her organization is continually impressed by the professionalism and preparedness of Bryant’s students. “The Bryant management group that I had last semester did an amazing job,” she says. “They did everything I was looking for and more.”
Taylor Millspaugh, Development and Communications Coordinator for Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ocean State, echoes those sentiments. She notes that more than 150 of the organization’s mentors are Bryant students, representing their single largest group of college mentors. “Bryant students and mentors are consistently hardworking and forward-thinking,” she states. “We try to replicate with other colleges what we have at Bryant.”
Kathleen Bannon ’21, found the community engagement fair to be “an incredibly enriching experience.” “Community engagement is an important part of being a good global citizen and member of the community,” she says.
