The first two weeks of school are filled with excitement and energy as Wolfpack Welcome Week showers students with a plethora of free goods ranging from free food at Chillin’ and Grillin’ to the new Friday Fest Concert featuring Cartel.

As the number of new students has increased, the quality and quantity of events has increased as well, as the University attempts to offer something for everyone. N.C. State has also raised the quality of the Convocation Speaker each year for the past three years. With a great turnout and speech by Da Chen this year, the University is truly interested in giving as much to its student body as possible.

The student body has taken advantage of each of these activities as participation in Wolfpack Welcome Week has increased annually, and in turn, students have tried to give back to NCSU and the surrounding community.

Often under publicized or unnoticed due to coverage of more scandalous activities, students have a great passion to serve those around them.

For the fifth year in a row Service N.C. State was a success. Partnering with Stop Hunger Now, students packaged over 300,000 meals for malnourished people in Haiti and Senegal. I commend and applaud the 30-plus student organizations that had members participate. Everybody will undoubtedly hear about the next hazing scandal or mismanagement of funds, but little recognition goes toward the good that many students perform.

I am impressed and inspired by the humble nature with which my fellow students continue to perform service work in spite of a lack of recognition. Many around our campus truly understand that life is about more than self gratification.

While many people may have missed Saturday’s Service N.C. State, the Center for Student Leadership, Ethics, and Public Service (CSLEPS) sponsors the Leadership Development Series, a yearlong series of lectures aimed at developing student leaders. It also sponsors an alternative fall break trip to Ashville to work with the Mana Food Bank on hunger related issues. During the trip, the group will also work with Habitat for Humanity toward building a home. If you’re not too homesick by fall break, you should consider going, the registration deadline is Sept. 26.

CSLEP’s largest, and fastest growing project is the Alternative Spring Break Program. These groups travel to locations across the globe, exploring issues in social justice and performing service work in the community. This year, there will be 13 trips to various countries across our hemisphere. They are one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences I have participated in. I’ve participated in two ASB trips and the stereotypical alcohol fueled trip to the tropics and found the ASB trips to be infinitely more rewarding and enjoyable. Building houses, working with children, traveling to the beach and hanging out with local people simply blows away cheap booze, sketchy people and massive hangovers. Each ASB trip actually provided me with a positive feeling and activities that I cared to remember.

I know it’s early to start contemplating plans for March, but the application for ASB will be out soon and each and every student should consider going. Team leaders have been hard at work over the summer planning trips, contacting organizations and working to ensure that their trip is the most memorable spring break experience you can have.

There is always so much positive energy flowing around our campus that it’s hard to keep track and participate in everything. With 30,000 students this is the way it should be. Even socializing on Friday nights can benefit those less fortunate as Sigma Pi and Farmhouse teamed on Friday up to host a fundraiser for Habitat, while Nelson’s and Packathon are doing the same on September 6. We do a great job here of serving others, it’s about time someone publicly applauded everyone for their efforts. Keep up the good work, and if you’d like to discuss more service options, I’ll be at Nelson’s on the sixth, having a drink or two to support Packathon. Like their motto goes, it’s for the kids.

What do you plan to do to give and take? E-mail your thoughts to [email protected]