How Can My Student Invest in Others at College?
Overview
At Liberty, We’re Training People – Not Just Professionals.
We believe an education isn’t complete if it doesn’t teach students how to make things right in the world.
That’s why we work to help our students develop priorities that include:
- Being a voice for the voiceless
- Bringing healing to the hurting
- Fighting for the oppressed
Our students give over half a million volunteer hours every year – the equivalent of a nearly $3 million investment in the local community.
LU Service (0:30)
See how Liberty students serve communities around the world!
Outreach
Making a Difference in Lynchburg and Beyond
Local Outreach
Our students aren’t waiting until they graduate to start acting like the Church – they are living as the Church right now by serving the local community. Learn about the many ways students make a lasting impact on the Lynchburg community by volunteering on a regular basis with Campus Serve and Christian Community Service (CSER).
Global Outreach
Liberty is dedicated to leading the way in training students from all academic fields in areas like disaster relief, anti-human trafficking, orphan care, food and water distribution, and poverty alleviation. Learn about our crisis response trips and how your student can be involved in bringing tangible help and healing to victims of unexpected disasters.
“There are so many types of devastation, and each of them reveals this is such a broken world. Being exposed to these types of hurt and brokenness is sobering, and it changes the way that you live. It’s humbling to realize what you have — and to be grateful for it. It’s a privilege to be intentional and respond by becoming part of the aid and relief.”
—Holly Griswold, associate director of LU Serve Now
Opportunities
The Value of Volunteering
Employers are not just looking for a great education or a great résumé – they want to hire great people!
Companies are looking to hire candidates who exhibit adaptability, flexibility, honesty, teamwork, dependability, willingness to listen and learn, critical thinking, and good communication skills. Volunteer opportunities – which are an intentional part of the Liberty experience – help students cultivate these traits.
Students can serve in programs such as:
- Campus Serve: About 150 students serve Lynchburg weekly through work projects, children’s ministry, elderly care, and poverty alleviation.
- LU Send: Our humanitarian aid organization has sent teams to provide immediate disaster relief to places like California, Puerto Rico, Texas, Antigua, Cuba, and Mexico.
- Habitat for Humanity Club: Raises money and builds homes for underprivileged families.
- Food Disparity Workshop: Provides meals to support underprivileged Lynchburg City School students on weekends.
Samaritan’s Purse (1:00)
“Serving in Nepal showed me (in a way I could not have received through a textbook) that I don’t have to take small bites of the possible — through Christ, I can embark on the impossible.”
—Amy R.
Impact
Faith in Action – Liberty’s Student Impact
- Law students provide free tax filing help to low-income families.
- Liberty has partnerships with Unclaimed Baggage and HumanKind to distribute suitcases to foster children in Central Virginia.
- Liberty students distribute thousands of gift-filled shoeboxes through Operation Christmas Child.
- Liberty’s football team uses the Thanksgiving season to buy and deliver special meals to different local families.
- Medical students provide free physicals, flu shots, mammograms, and mental health and vision screenings during community clinics.
- Students collect bins of canned food for Lynchburg Daily Bread (a local food pantry) during football games.
Habitat for Humanity (0:42)
Habitat for Humanity Club Build in Lynchburg
“One of the biggest benefits of the trip [to Rwanda] was seeing the faith of others that had endured through crisis. I was speaking to our amazing translator, Justin, who is now a dear friend of mine. He was a young child during the Rwandan genocide and lost all of his family members.
I asked him what he did when he doubted God. He looked at me confused, “What do you mean?” I repeated my question, and he responded “I never doubted God.” He didn’t say this in a prideful manner, he was just thoroughly confused by the concept of doubting God in the midst of trials because his view of God did not change based on circumstances.
This trip deepened my view of reconciliation and forgiveness to a level I didn’t even know existed.”
—Brooke S., psychology student