This program provides structured opportunities for Gateway Scholars and other students in LCAE programs to engage with the community through service, while fostering the development of leadership skills in each participant. An extension of this program will allow upper class students to serve as mentors for the incoming freshmen involved with LCAE Project Volunteer. During the 2011-2012, the freshmen class chartered the first UT student organization in the Longhorn Center for Academic Excellence. Three major community service projects were sponsored by these “Service Scholars”: (1) a day of service at the Capitol Area Food Bank in downtown Austin, (2) Project 2012 and (3) Explore UT. 21 Gateway Scholars moved, packed and loaded over 1 ton of food at the Capitol Area Food Bank; over 20 worked as a project team to build flower boxes, paint the window trim, and plant shrubs around the campus of a local Austin ISD school for Project 2012; and 23 provided the largest student volunteer support team ever for the big tent activities sponsored by the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement (DDCE) during the University’s Explore UT event.
