FYSOP-ers Descend on Campus, and Boston

The theme for FYSOP, now in its 26th year, is “Sail around the world.”

Hundreds of freshmen and transfer students arrive on campus today to volunteer for BU’s annual First-Year Student Outreach Project (FYSOP), a hugely popular service-based program run by the Community Service Center. During the week before classes start, students will engage in community service projects at sites across Boston. There were just 33 participants the year the program rolled out in 1989—this year, FYSOP’s 26th, there will be more than 700 student volunteers. They’ll be joined by 200 volunteer student staff members and 27 paid staff, among them 2 program managers and 22 project coordinators, who have spent the past six months preparing for the week.

FYSOP’s benefits are twofold, says former FYSOP volunteer and staff leader Swanson Ninan (CAS’15), one of this year’s two program managers. In addition to the social benefits of meeting fellow FYSOPers, “the program acts as a great introduction to life at BU and in Boston,” Ninan says. Not only did FYSOP help him become acclimated to the University before classes started, but it helped him secure an internship later with one of the organizations where he’d volunteered.

By the week’s end, FYSOP students will have logged 20,000 hours of community service in one of 11 focus areas: abilities, animals, children, elders, environment, food justice, gender and sexuality, homelessness and housing, human rights, public health, and urban engagement. FYSOPers were able to rank their interests in advance, and coordinators made an effort to assign them one of their top choices.

This afternoon, the student volunteers will move into their dorms and then come together tonight for the program’s opening ceremonies, which will include cheers, icebreaker activities, and a skit put on by the group coordinators. Tomorrow is education day: students will learn about the challenges facing their particular focus area as well as possible solutions. “During FYSOP, we try to balance service in the community with the education that stands alongside the service,” says Zach Hobbs (CAS’08), director of the CSC. For example, the environment group will discuss ways individuals can be more green, like unplugging power cords and washing clothes in cold water.

Starting on Wednesday, the groups will begin working at various nonprofit organizations in the greater Boston area. The animal team will travel to the Gifford Cat Shelter, a cage-free feline shelter in Brighton that works to find permanent homes for its cats. Volunteers will help clean, care for, and socialize with the animals, many of them abandoned, abused, or injured. FYSOPers in the elders group will visit Sherrill House, a nonprofit skilled nursing and rehabilitation center in Jamaica Plain, where they will work one-on-one with residents on various creative activities. The public health team will head to North Andover, Mass., to help employees of the International Medical Equipment Collaborative package and distribute medical supplies to send to developing countries.

Each night, volunteers will return to BU to share their experiences over dinner. Tuesday night, the groups will head off to explore Boston, visiting locales like the Esplanade, the North End, and Newbury Street. During Wednesday’s program night, coordinators have planned performances and speakers that complement this year’s “sail around the world” theme, with appearances by Afro Cuban dance team MetaMovements and an Irish step dancer from Harbey Dance Academy. During Thursday’s evening activities, the GSU will host a dance party and board games. Friday night’s closing ceremony will be a celebration of the week’s activities.

Ninan’s fellow program manager, Kirsten Kuhn (CAS’15), is marking her fifth year of involvement in the program. She recalls that as a freshman, through FYSOP she was able to visit Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo, help build a community garden, and meet and work closely with dozens of soon-to-be classmates, as well as many upperclassmen, before she had taken her BU first class.

“I think FYSOP is a really great way to learn about Boston’s neighborhoods, people, and all of the city’s amazing social justice programs,” Kuhn says. “And you learn about the dining halls, how to ride the T….It helps you get your footing at BU.”

BU Today is covering FYSOP 2015 live this week via Twitter. Share your FYSOP experience under the hashtag #FYSOP26, and we will post your comments here for the remainder of the week. You can also follow the Community Service Center at @BUCSC.