Wilson Day

Wilson Day photoWilson Day is an annual day of community service for new and incoming University of Rochester students. Now in its 20th year, Wilson Day is a proud tradition at the U of R, with faculty, staff, and students from the College of Arts, Sciences & Engineering participating. Traditionally, students are placed in over 50 agencies throughout the city of Rochester and perform a variety of tasks including washing chalkboards, painting houses, landscaping, and playing bingo in nursing homes. Wilson Day serves as one of the principle community builders during Freshman Orientation and provides a safe environment to bond with one’s hall. Wilson Day strives to create connections between students, their hall communities and the local community.

Connection to Hall Community

Wilson Day provides an opportunity for newly arrived freshmen students to spend a day with their halls, socializing and getting to know them better.  Everyone in the hall participates in the same activity, providing a relaxed atmosphere for casual conversation to develop.

Connection to the Local Community

Wilson Day photoComing to a new place away from home can be a daunting and scary experience. Often, it takes a long time to feel connected to the place you are living in. Wilson Day is an opportunity for new students to get off campus and go to an agency in the community. Students establish a real and personal connection to the place they serve, and sites are chosen specifically so that volunteers have the opportunity to return to that agency throughout the year. Students are able to continue their relationship with the agency even after Wilson Day, helping to establish a closer bond between students and the city of Rochester .

Idea of Service

Wilson Day photoParticipating in acts of community service benefit and enrich the agencies that are helped as well as the lives of those doing the service. Through Wilson Day, the University of Rochester hopes to instill an idea of service into all of its students. The University is actively taking actions to become more involved in the local community.

Wilson Day serves to introduce students to both their new Rochester home and their campus residential community. Wilson Day shows the commitment of the University, as the only college within Rochester 's city limits, to its larger role within the community.