Our Lady of the Lake University students put service into action during September’s Service Saturday, helping improve accessibility and quality of life for older adults on San Antonio’s West Side.
Led by Dr. Jesse Harasta, director of OLLU’s Center for Service-Learning and Volunteerism, students from the Honors 2300 Community as Context class, as well as members of the Kappa Delta Chi sorority, partnered with Building Hope Together, a local nonprofit that helps low-income seniors remain safely and independently in their homes as they age.
During the service project, OLLU volunteers helped paint and stain two newly constructed accessibility ramps at West Side homes.
For Dr. Laura Petersen, the project provided an opportunity for students to connect classroom discussions with the experiences of people in OLLU’s surrounding community.
“I wanted my students to see that the ideas we discuss in class have real consequences for real people,” Petersen said. “Service Saturday was a chance to step off campus and do something concrete for our local community.”
The Honors course asks students to examine issues such as food and financial insecurity and how they affect the West Side compared with other parts of San Antonio. Petersen said service-learning allows students to compare what they study in the classroom with lived experience while recognizing themselves as active members of a community rather than simply observers.
The accessibility ramp project also gave students a tangible example of how relatively small efforts can have a significant impact.
“A ramp is simple, but for a resident with limited mobility, it can mean getting to the doctor, the grocery store, or a family gathering without help,” Petersen said.
Petersen said students also had an opportunity to develop teamwork, problem-solving and humility while seeing firsthand how Building Hope Together identifies community needs, organizes volunteers and follows through on projects. The experience provided a more personal context for classroom discussions about equity, access and responsibility.
Following the project, students are reflecting on their experience through a written assignment and connecting the service work with an observation study underway in the course. Petersen said that combination helps students make purposeful connections between what they are studying and what they experienced in the community.
Petersen said she was particularly impressed by how quickly students organized themselves while painting and staining the ramps.
“Quiet students jumped right into the work, helped each other, and kept everyone’s spirits up despite the Texas heat,” she said.
The project also reflects OLLU’s long-standing connection to the West Side and its commitment to serving its neighbors.
“OLLU doesn’t exist in isolation; our students share these neighborhoods with residents who have lived here for decades,” Petersen said. “Understanding the challenges older adults face, like mobility, isolation, and aging in place, helps students become more thoughtful citizens and professionals.”
HNRS 2300 is a validated service-learning course, and this semester marks the first time the class has worked with Building Hope Together and House of Neighborly Services. Petersen said she hopes to continue those partnerships and identify additional opportunities that allow students to better understand course concepts through service and human experience.
Victoria Ramirez, a member of the Kappa Delta Chi sorority who participated in the service project, stressed that the project was meaningful because something as simple as a safe ramp can make a big difference in someone’s everyday life and help seniors feel safe and more independent.
“The most rewarding part was knowing that our time and efforts were directly helping someone in our community,” Ramirez said. “It was also rewarding to actually get to talk to one of the elderly women that we were helping and that she used to attend Our Lady of the Lake University.”
Most importantly, Petersen hopes students leave the experience understanding that meaningful service does not have to be large in scale.
“I hope that they learn that the act of service does not have to be ‘grand’ to matter — any small acts of service are just as purposeful,” she said. “Most of all, I hope they remember the people they served and carry that awareness into whatever work they do next.”
Harasta echoed that sentiment, stating, “Service Saturdays like this are a chance for us to get out of our University bubble and engage with the community around us, to get to know and serve our neighbors.”
