The University of Central Arkansas Honors College hosted a Service Fair on Oct. 9 at Schichtl Hall. The event allowed students to participate in various activities for community service hours. The longer the students stayed, the more community service hours they were able to accumulate. 

Honors has a requirement of three service hours. 

The UCA Commitment also requires students to have 10 community service hours per semester.

The event consisted of three different rooms. 

One room included an online volunteering opportunity. Another room had fabric scrap bookmarks. 

Another room hosted writing letters of hope to Syria. 

Students were also able to make Christmas cards for UCA College Square, the retirement home on campus, and other nursing homes around Conway.

Freshman Anaya Morehead said, “I decided to come because I just needed more volunteer opportunities, and also just to, like, be involved with the community a little more.”

Another freshman student, Jayla Bridgeforth, shared her opinions on why she wanted to support the community. 

“I decided to come today for community service hours and to be more involved with the UCA community,” Bridgeforth said.

Other students appreciated the variety of opportunities and ways to help out in the community. Freshman student Jonathan Worrell said, “I hope to learn ways in which I can broaden my mind and my view on how I can help without being so black and white. So there’s multiple ways to engage with the community and help those in need. And this will help, you know, decrease the limit on how I think.”

Honors student service intern Makenzie Riegling spoke about what she hopes students gain from attending. 

“I hope that they get some perspective about how the world is bigger than just what you’re accessing,” Riegling said. “You know, we have global problems that you can make a difference here in Conway, Arkansas, in Syria. Like, you know, it’s not just you have to be physically there geographically, you can reach farther than how far your fingertips can reach. Same thing with our online programs. It’s just getting that idea that a small impact can make a big difference, especially when you have all of these people that are here. You know, this is our biggest event every year. It’s where most people get their hours, where the most service gets done. And so especially when you have all of these little differences, everybody’s doing a little bit,  it makes a huge impact.”