Thirty years ago in Sierra Leone, Louise Schullery Cox ('67), right, grew so close to Abaigail Olasinde, left, that the Nigerian woman named her infant after the Peace Corps volunteer. "My mother sent an outfit, which little Louise is wearing" in the photo, Cox says. After teaching and raising a family, Louise lives and volunteers in Connecticut.

"I carried those eggs in my lap for more than eight hours," recalls Cox, "only to have them break once I got back to my village."

Her journey along a dusty, winding road in Sierra Leone is one of many memories that Cox holds dear from her Peace Corps experience back in 1967. She went with idealistic and ambitious intentions -- to save the world.

"As soon as I entered the Peace Corps," Cox says, "I learned first and foremost that I would be doing the real learning and be the one receiving the most help," explains Cox. "I was so green, but my intentions were pure. I was out to save the world ... in Sierra Leone the people were so patient, wise and compassionate. They protected me and went on with their lives ... I came in contact with different realities and realized that my way of thinking was only one of many -- not the one or even the best one."

LEADING A CAMPUSWIDE effort to cultivate social responsibility and lifelong learning, Community Service Learning links academics to thoughtful service experiences in order to foster a generation of leaders committed to positive social change.

The university's service-learning opportunities start immediately and continue even after graduation.

"JMU has a rich service-learning environment," says center director Rich Harris.

Incoming students may participate in student-led Freshman Service Learning trips even before the school year begins and later go on to volunteer for any of 100 community agencies that partner with the center.

The center offers myriad specialized programs. Students with computer expertise help community agencies with their information technology needs. The center's America Reads partnership places reading tutors in elementary schools.

The center awards grants to encourage professors to incorporate service learning into their courses. Kinesiology professor Mike Saunders, for instance, teaches Exercise and the Older Adult. His students develop fitness programs for residents at a local retirement home. About 1,500 students are enrolled in 28 courses requiring community service. They provide structured time for the students to reflect on the service experience as it relates to their course work, personal development and civic involvement.

Last year more than 300 students joined 29 professors in Alternative Spring Break service trips in the United States, Haiti, Mexico and Romania. The JMU program earned Break Away's Alternative Break Program of the Year Award in 1998. The year prior, JMU landed a spot on Mother Jones' list of "Top 10 Activist Schools."

Cecil Bradfield, cofounder of the center and retired sociology professor, still imbues campus with his service philosophy.

"You are the one percent minority of privilege in the world in terms of education, wealth, health, access to technology," Bradfield often told students. "That [privilege] expects of us some responsibility for the rest of the world."

Graduation marks a true commencement rather than a culmination of service. In 2000, a group of alumni gave up their vacations to go to Dominica. Working through Peace Corps liaison Warren Passin ('98), alumni taught in a village school, developed a waste disposal system and planted flowers and shrubbery. The trip, which won Program of the Year from the National Alternative Spring Break Service Program, was so well received that another group of alumni returned to Dominica this past November.

And JMU's geographic-based alumni chapters are beginning to offer service in
a more systematic way. "Agencies really look forward to our students' intense assistance for that Alternative Spring Break week," Harris says. "But agencies get depressed by the let down when the students disappear again. So our alumni will start service relationships that they will carry
on year-round."

Those service-learning values have stuck, becoming part of the JMU culture. Even 30 years ago, it was apparent. "There is something about the JMU experience that makes you a better person," Cox recalls.

Last year, more than 37 alumni were serving in the Peace Corps, earning JMU the rank of 21st in the nation among universities with more than 5,000 undergraduates. Since its inception by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, hundreds of JMU alumni have expressed their civic impulses in the Peace Corps, which is an emblem of the service and civic action that the university attempts to instill. Following are the experiences of two of those JMU alumni, Erica Bleeg ('96) and Meme McKee ('99), in their own words.