Texas Exes, UT Partner on Huge Service Project

By Rose Cahalan in Chapters, Special, TXEX on November 2, 2011 at 3:04 pm | 2 Comments

For the past 13 years on a Saturday in February, about 2,000 UT students wake up early to paint buildings, plant trees, build benches, and otherwise make a difference in a needy Austin neighborhood. They’re volunteers at The Project, UT’s largest day of service.

Now thousands of Texas Exes across the country and the globe are getting in on the fun. This week UT’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, which organizes the student-run service event, and the Texas Exes announced Texas Exes Care About the Project. The partnership encourages UT alumni worldwide to do service projects any time during the month of February.

The Texas Exes Austin Chapter will join in at the official event on Feb. 25 in the Dove Springs/Onion Creek neighborhood, and other chapters and networks will hold smaller service events in their own communities.

“We’re really, really pumped for this,” says Amory Baril, program coordinator in UT’s Volunteer & Service Learning Center. “The Project is a huge event in Austin, and now we’re taking it to a national and even international level. So many students participate in service projects while they’re at UT, and now they can stay involved after they graduate.”

“This is a great example of ‘what starts here changes the world,'” says Texas Exes assistant director of chapters Laura Carpenter. And it’s an opportunity for alumni to engage with the Texas Exes, and with UT, through community service.”

Get involved with Texas Exes Cares About the Project here. Find your local Texas Exes Chapter here.

An earlier version of this website linked to an old Project website. The link has been updated to utproject.org.

Tags: chapters, community service, ddce, diversity, partnerships, project