MSU Global Day of Service with OISS
Domestic and international students from eight countries at MSU rose early on Saturday, April 16, grabbed a lunch and jumped on a bus to head to Sunny Crest Youth Ranch to volunteer for the day! This event was in collaboration with thousands of other MSU students volunteering in Michigan for the MSU Service Day with the theme, #SpartansWillServe in mind. With the hours that every Spartan put in serving that Saturday, MSU students gave back more than 40,000 hours of community service. That’s amazing!
Sunny Crest Youth Ranch
Sunny Crest Youth Ranch is a working ranch where at risk boys are given housing, education and a chance to work in the various aspects of the farm. Founders of the ranch, Ron and Ellyn Coppess, and other staff greeted the OISS group with a warm welcome and even served our students lunch! International students got to work with farm animals, paint, mulch and work in the yard to help Sunny Crest Ranch in their growth as a community.
Student Perspectives
Many students said they enjoyed making new friends and talking to the boys at the ranch and hearing their background and experiences.
“I really enjoyed making new friends today and I enjoyed doing this farm work because I never have done it before, so it was an entirely new experience for me,” said Guanxiong Huang.
“I have done volunteer projects in China but this is my first one here,” said Kailiang Gu. “I would do it again for sure because it is a meaningful thing and I really enjoyed this experience; it is something you can’t learn from school.”
Gu said he tries to do a lot of service learning and that his favorite part is helping others.
Want to join more volunteer projects at MSU?
Make sure you go to the MSU Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement website, where many volunteer and service learning projects are available to MSU students. Not only can you serve on this MSU Service Day every April, but there are opportunities all year round. Service learning and volunteering projects are great experience that you can participate in with other domestic and international students, all while giving back to our community!
OISS Live 