2007.02.21: February 21, 2007: Headlines: Directors - Celeste: University Administration: The Gazette: Dick Celeste says Volunteering must be done selflessly
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2007.02.21: February 21, 2007: Headlines: Directors - Celeste: University Administration: The Gazette: Dick Celeste says Volunteering must be done selflessly
Dick Celeste says Volunteering must be done selflessly
"Any act of service ethically done carries an obligation to listen and engage with those we are serving. In the end, service has to change your life — otherwise, you’ve missed something,” Celeste said today as he gave the opening address of the Colorado Conference on Volunteerism and Service Learning. “From an act of service comes a new way to engage the world around us and that ought to be our goal as we design and evaluate service opportunities,” he said. “If you’re a tutor in school part of what you bring back is a passion to make the school better.” Richard Celeste served as the 9th director of the Peace Corps after his appointment by President Carter. He has also served as Governor of Ohio, Ambassador to India, and President of Colorado College since 2002.
Dick Celeste says Volunteering must be done selflessly
CC president: Volunteering must be done selflessly
By DEBBIE KELLEY, THE GAZETTE
Colorado College President Dick Celeste believes that anyone who does volunteer work for selfish reasons — to look good in the community or list on a resume, for example — won’t succeed.
“Any act of service ethically done carries an obligation to listen and engage with those we are serving. In the end, service has to change your life — otherwise, you’ve missed something,” Celeste said today as he gave the opening address of the Colorado Conference on Volunteerism and Service Learning. The conference is being held through Friday in Colorado Springs.
This is the first time the statewide convention for nonprofit professionals has
met in Colorado Springs, said Mayor Lionel Rivera, while welcoming a crowd of 400.
“It’s important that those who have give and be role models,” said Rivera, who has been a volunteer with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program since 1993.
Volunteerism must move beyond service to advocacy, said Colorado Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien.
“We need to find people passionate about our causes,” she said, “and remember it’s not just the private sector or public sector — it’s all of us working together.”
Celeste agrees that to be effective, volunteerism needs to result in change.
“It’s not enough to help the conditions. You have to change the system that created those conditions,” said Celeste, who previously worked as director of the United States Peace Corps and served two terms as Governor of Ohio.
Volunteer work should inspire, upset and spur people to alter the status quo, he said.
“From an act of service comes a new way to engage the world around us and that ought to be our goal as we design and evaluate service opportunities,” he said. “If you’re a tutor in school part of what you bring back is a passion to make the school better.”
Celeste has found the adage that volunteers get more out of their experiences than they give holds true, even for those who are mandated to community service.
In his role as the former U.S. Ambassador to India, Celeste disciplined 16 American International School students caught stealing motorbikes by making them build a girls’ school out of mud bricks. The students, at first angry and outraged, eventually befriended villagers and became proud of what they were accomplishing, Celeste said.
“By Week 8 their friends were asking `Why do you have to steal something to get to do this cool thing?'”
As lieutenant governor for one term in Ohio, Celeste had the opportunity to pardon the late country music singer Johnny PayCheck, who was incarcerated for shooting a man at a bar while intoxicated.
“I obliged him to 300 hours of community service with alcohol addiction programs and he later sent me a letter, thanking me. He said the best part of what happened was his community service. He said, ‘I think I’ve been saving lives.’
“That’s the core of service, whether we’re called to do it or obliged to it, it somehow gets a hold of us in a significant way that can change us and the world.”
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0235 or debbie.kelley@gazette.com
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Headlines: February, 2007; Richard Celeste; Richard Celeste (Director 1979 - 1981); University Administration
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Story Source: The Gazette
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Directors - Celeste; University Administration
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