HWS News
2 April 2025 • Service Giving Back: Spring 2025 Day of Service
HWS students, faculty and staff will volunteer at 28 locations, including the Geneva Public Library where students will help senior citizens with their tech questions.
The Hobart and William Smith community will participate in its spring Day of Service on Saturday, April 12. In partnership with the Geneva Public Library and Ontario County Office for the Aging, students will offer a new service, helping senior citizens with technology-related questions, such as how to enlarge print on cell phones, connect to email, download attachments and other digital tasks.
At the library, students will also clean up from the library’s book sale, which runs from April 3 through April 11, prior to the Day of Service.
Frank Sykes, Executive Director of the Geneva Public Library, expresses deep gratitude to the Hobart Basketball and William Smith Volleyball teams for their ongoing support. "The library cherishes its long-standing association with Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Our partnership exemplifies the power of collaborative community engagement."
The triannual HWS Days of Service event, now in its 31st year at HWS, introduces students to community leaders and shows them ways they can engage in service while they live in Geneva. Maggie Mahoney ’26 and Jack Sherwood ’27, co-presidents of the initiative this year, match volunteers to community sites, facilitate scheduling with community partners and volunteers, advertise the event and organize breakfast and transportation for participants.
“The most rewarding aspect of my role is that the change we are making is both felt and tangible. Our service goes beyond just making the community brighter, but it is also critical in forming and maintaining community relationships,” Mahoney says.
Peter Budmen, associate director of Community Engagement and Service Learning, says Saturday’s Days of Service is expected to draw nearly 300 students who will volunteer at 28 sites across the Finger Lakes area—seven more than last fall. The interest from the community was so high that several sites had to be placed on a waitlist, he adds.
Ella Skinner, house manager and volunteer coordinator at the Smith Center for the Arts, where students will help clean the 130-year-old building, is grateful for the yearly support. “It’s really helpful to have students get to projects that we wouldn’t get to otherwise. We’ll ask them to organize a closet or something, and they’ll get it done in 10 minutes, while it’s something we’ve put off for months,” Skinner says. “That’s always really encouraging and productive.”
Like all first-year students, Sherwood was required to participate in the Days of Service during orientation. The experience was so positive, he continued volunteering at Food Justice of Geneva NY Inc. twice a week where he helps sort fresh produce to return to the community for free and picks up produce from area farmers to distribute to the community.
Food Justice is a small organization, Sherwood says, and he likes the feeling of connection he has with other volunteers. Through Days of Service, he hopes fellow students will connect with the community and become aware of “some of the things they can do to help.”
In August 2024, Hobart and William Smith was ranked No. 1 in the Nation for Service by Washington Monthly. Their ratings consider U.S. colleges and universities contribution to the public good in three, equally weighted categories: social mobility, research, community and national service. Days of Service was founded at HWS in 1994 by former Hobart Dean and Wagner College President Emeritus Richard Guarasci, Chief Operating Officer of Finger Lakes Health Lara Chatel-Turbide and Lt. Col. John Norvell ’66, P’99, P’02, L.H.D.’24. The idea sparked during a trip led by Guarasci and Chatel-Turbide to a City Year Day of Service event in Boston, Mass. On the return journey, the group agreed to launch a similar initiative on campus.
Top: Students clean the front doors of the Smith Opera House during Day of Service.
