Wilson Day

An annual day of service for first-year students, Wilson Day saw more than 1,400 students working in gardens, churches, classrooms, and community centers across Rochester.

They set up school classrooms, played with children, cleaned senior living centers, served meals, and performed yardwork at more than 80 organizations around Rochester as part of the annual day of service for first-year students.

More than 1,300 incoming students will fan out to about 90 Rochester schools, libraries, senior centers, neighborhood associations, and more to paint, stack bookshelves, rake, pull weeds, and begin to get involved in their new community.

The Rochester Center for Community Leadership was created in 2005 to put University student community engagement programs under one umbrella. In 12 years, it’s become a pretty big umbrella.

Wilson Day enables first-year students to learn about the Rochester community during orientation, as they help out at nearly 100 local agencies, including schools, churches, nursing homes, museums, and more.

More than 1,400 first-year students fanned out to 94 sites—schools, churches, libraries, museums, senior centers and more—to learn more about their new home and to help community organizations.

“I like to help people, and it’s nice to go into the community and give back,” said Matthew Le '20, one of the more than 1,300 freshmen who began their college career in Rochester with the annual Wilson Day of community service.

This year nearly 1,500 freshmen went out into the community to bond as a class, learn about the important work being done by organizations in their new home town, and volunteer to help.

As students return to the University of Rochester campus later this month, two scheduled events may be newsworthy: Tuesday, Aug. 25 is Freshman Move In Day. Thursday, Aug. 27 is Wilson Day, a day of community service for incoming University students.

The incoming Class of 2018 fanned out into the surrounding neighborhoods of Rochester during the 26th annual Wilson Day of community service.