Photo courtesy of Center for Civic Engagement
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The Center for Civic Engagement, a new volunteer outreach service, is offering more resources to Binghamton University students to make volunteering easy, including the creation of a new website and the imminent launching of a research database.

The CCE is a service that promotes experienced-based education through community service, and does so by aiding students, faculty and organizations in their search for finding the right opportunities that would otherwise be hard to access.

Allison Alden was hired last spring as the founding director of the CCE. Although she is new to this role, Alden has worked on the BU campus for 25 years in various capacities, most recently as a faculty member in the College of Community and Public Affairs.

According to Alden, this service was the vision of BU’s Vice President of Student Affairs Brian Rose, who met with students and faculty last semester, as well as during the summer to ask about what they wanted most to see happen with the new center.

‘I was so excited when I first heard about the CCE being planned,’ said Amy Cubbage, a junior majoring in geography and president of the CCE.

Cubbage’s job over the summer was to help design the current CCE website, which will list the names of organizations, contact information, location and transportation routes once it is complete.

Anthony Naglieri, the CCE’s graduate student intern, was hired in August to develop the CCE’s multimedia management system. He said the CCE is also examining other similar programs.

‘[The CCE] will study offices that function in similar capacities at other universities and work to determine what type of services and programs best fit our particular campus and the needs of our community,’ Naglieri said.

On Sept. 21, the CCE will be holding the Inaugural Showcase of Community Opportunities, which will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. in the Mandela Room of the Old University Union. It will offer a sneak peek in promoting more than 75 different community organizations in the local area.

The event will give students an opportunity to actively engage in their search for service opportunities, which include internships, research projects and volunteer service opportunities on and off campus. It will also give University faculty a chance to begin new projects and connections with professional members of the community.

According to a brochure published by the CCE, each year BU students put in approximately 275,000 volunteer and internship hours, and it is estimated that this service time has contributed around $7.8 million in impact to the greater Binghamton area. In 2009, BU was the first, and only, state university to be recognized for its community service, and it was awarded the Distinction designation on the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.

Students, faculty and organizations can go to www2.binghamton.edu/cce to get involved with the CCE or visit the CCE office, now located in the College-in-the-Woods Commons room 130.