Vincent House serves a population of low-income families on the West Side of Syracuse. Through Vincent House, students are provided many educational and social activities that will enhance development in both areas.
Kelsey Cappetta, the Volunteer Coordinator at Vincent House writes, “Our after-school program is for children ages 5 to12. The program runs Monday through Friday from 2:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M. Although there is a particular emphasis placed on homework and study during Wednesday’s sessions, we would love to have tutors available to help the children any day of the week with our recreational activities.
“We here at Vincent House will do our best to accommodate your varying schedules and time commitments, as we know college students are very busy during the academic year.” This is just one of many places to become involved. Find the right one for you in 2013!
The English tutoring program at Nottingham High School seeks to improve social literacy by providing academic tutoring and mentorship to “English as a Second Language” students. Tutors will help Nottingham High School students from all over the world, and with a variety of backgrounds. Honors Alumnus, John Cardone ’11, started the program in Fall 2010. 
Ashley Burke volunteered at the New York State fair, working with area 4 H members. 4-H represents a partnership between the Cornell University Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Human Ecology and county Cornell Cooperative Extension Associations. 4-H helps youth ages 5-19 to develop and apply useful knowledge and skills, as well as positive attitudes about work, people and communications.
Like thousands of others during the holiday season, Honors student Brian Cheung helped out at The Samaritan Center, serving dinner to the needy. He said that the experience reminded him of the importance of charities in the community. He commented that, “It was nice to see exactly how many people rely on the Samaritan Center as a source of food. Being able to interact with the community was an eye-opening experience, and really showed me the need that the community has for both supplies and manpower. I hope to come back many times, hopefully building a relationship with the Samaritan Center and some of its patrons.” Take a page from Brian’s book: give and receive throughout the year!
We spent the morning amongst the grape vines, snipping the ripe bunches with clippers and piling them into the red bins. The traditional method of farming in Cinque Terre is to cut flat terraces into the mountainside, and support them with rock walls. Cinque Terre is famous for its rock-building methods – the masons use almost no cement to keep them together, yet the walls have stayed in place for hundreds of years, and remained intact after the storm. We worked from the top of the hill downwards, finishing around noon. Upon seeing us all together, the 91-year-old owner of the vineyard exclaimed: “I’ve never seen so many beautiful girls on my farm at once – now I can die!” Morbid but cute.
