Approximately 60 First-Year Study Abroad Experience (FYSAE) students participated in campus-based Community Service Day events on Monday, Aug. 27. Amid the anticipation and excitement of their departure that afternoon for a semester of study in the United Kingdom, students were happily focused on their community service projects.

Fifteen FYSAE students made audio recordings of children’s books on iPhones. Caroline Dunn ’13, Psychology major, explained that the recordings will be transferred to CDs and delivered, along with the actual books, to the Philadelphia Book Bank. She expects to have 10-20 recordings for the organization.

Nancy Dennehy ’16, Christina Fuller ’16 and Casey Bennett ’16, all bound for Stirling University, took a break from recording to comment on their experiences at Orientation. They loved Meet Arcadia, Plastik Music and the dance in the Castle. Finn Schwartz ’16, Ashlee Miller ’16 and Izabelle Lewis ’16 were having a great time and amazed at all of the fun activities.

In the Community Service Office in Dilworth Hall, approximately 20 FYSAE students were very busy creating clay bowls for the Annual Empty Bowl Dinner. Community Service volunteers Chris Bains ’13 and Max Kulp ’13 directed the bowl making. Bains estimated that this activity will produce 50-100 bowls from nearly 350 lbs. of clay. From here, the bowls will be fired, painted and washed in preparation for the Dinner on Monday, Nov. 12. There will be additional bowl making events on campus over the next few weeks.

Dilworth-Thomas Lobby was the scene of a beading project for the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society. FYSAE Students created “Hip Tagz,” beaded key chains to be sold as fundraisers. Alumna Alyssa Ramos-Reynoso ’12, Amanda Ekstein ’13 and Danielle Bartholomew ’13 assisted the students. Reynoso, a recent Political Science graduate, volunteered to spend the morning helping students bead and package their creations. She was a Community Service Officer during her time at Arcadia, and received the Campus Achievement Award in 2011.

Bartholomew and Ekstein, both 2010 FYSAE alumni, are involved in the FYSAE Mentoring Program. Bartholomew is the Mentor Coordinator. She oversees the program which matches new FYSAE students with FYSAE alumni. Ekstein, a mentor, is paired with two new students. They met and got to know each other during the two-day FYSAE Summer Orientation. Ekstein will keep in touch with her students while they are abroad by e-mail, Skype and Facebook. In addition to students, mentors also get to know the students’ parents.