This Week in Service
The Week of September 21
Make sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to keep up with all the available opportunities and programs we are sharing! You can also find out what is happening 'In the News' with DCS.
In this email:

  1. Waltham Group Advocacy Deis Acts for Week of 9/21/20!
  2. Rich/Collins Community Leadership & Impact Fellowship Information Session TOMORROW!
  3. National Voter Registration Day
  4. Create a class with Splash!
  5. Conversations that Matter" Applications Still Available for Second Fall Cohort.
  6. Your Career Corner with Hiatt Career Center
  7. Planetary Health: Protecting nature to protect ourselves in the time of COVID-19 and emerging infectious disease
  8. The Waltham Public Library wants YOUR stories!
  9. Access to Power Fellowship
  10. Become A Poll Worker
On Campus & Virtual Opportunities
Waltham Group Advocacy Deis Acts for Week of 9/21/20!
Resource and Action Item:

The Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI) is offering an anti-racist education program through white affinity spaces. This is a chance for those who identify as white to educate yourself, explore your whiteness, and learn about being antiracist. Right now the program consists of two levels each consisting of three 90 minute sessions on Fridays from 2:00-3:30PM hosted by Joy von Steiger, a racial justice educator. The first session is this Friday (9/25).

For more information click here and to sign up please email at
Rich/Collins Community Leadership & Impact Fellowship Information Session TOMORROW!
Tuesday, September 22nd
5-6 pm

Do you have an idea that can uplift your community? Join the Department of Community Service this Tuesday, September 22nd from 5-6 pm EST for a virtual information session about the Rich/Collins Community Leadership & Impact Fellowship program! R/C CLIF recipients can receive a grant up to $4,000 to implement a virtual community impact project that provides immediate support to an important cause, such as COVID-19 relief or racial justice, while engaging in a student leadership cohort and being awarded a $600 prize stipend for serving as a fellow!

Please RSVP for the Info Session or contact rcclif@brandeis.edu with any questions!
National Voter Registration Day
Tuesday, September 22nd
11-2:30 pm
Tent on Great Lawn

September 22 is National Voter Registration Day! With less than 5 weeks until Election Day, it is time to make sure your voice will be heard! 

Join VoteDeis and the Community Engagement Ambassadors outside the SCC from 11-2:30 on Tuesday to register, request an absentee ballot, make a voting plan, and have all of your questions answered! 

If you are worried about making sure your vote is counted this November, we can give you the forms, stamps, and confidence to make it happen! Please reach out to CEAP with any questions!
Create a class with Splash!
Every year, Education for Students by Students hosts Splash @ Brandeis University. Splash is a day where hundreds of middle and high school students join Brandeis University to take classes taught by us, the students, alumni, faculty, and staff of Brandeis. From techniques in cosmetics to the Greek-Persian War, classes can be as unique as your passions. Students take this as an opportunity to spread excitement about their passion or skill to the Waltham community. 

We encourage students to teach a class of their own about anything that may excite them—academic or unconventional. Classes range from yoga, astrophysics, and poetry to "How to Solve a Rubix Cube", entrepreneurship workshops, and so much more. No prior teaching experience is necessary. The registration for Splash teachers is now open! Splash will take place virtually on Saturday, November 14th.

These are quick 1-hr classes and it's a great opportunity to gain community service hours, teaching experience, and to share your passion! In addition, it’s only a one-day commitment!

If you are interested, please register your class by Thursday, September 24th.
Conversations that Matter" Applications Still Available for Second Fall Cohort.
Do you wish you had a space to tackle the big questions, the ones that keep you up at night? Do you want to develop skills for participating in and leading better conversations? Do you want to find community on campus? Conversations that Matter is a popular five-week fellowship in its second semester. Discussions will take place weekly and tackle big questions such as “For whom are we responsible?” and “How do we disagree?” 
Participants have the option of participating in two-week facilitator training upon the conclusion of the fellowship.

The Conversations that Matter fellowship will be facilitated by Center for Spiritual Life staff and is open to all Brandeis undergraduate students, whether attending on campus or remotely this semester. Apply here.
Splash Teacher Registration is Now Open!
Saturday, November 14th.
(Teacher Registration closes on Thursday, September 24th) 

Splash is a day where hundreds of middle and high school students join Brandeis University to take classes taught by us, the students, alumni, faculty, and staff of Brandeis. From techniques in cosmetics to the Greek-Persian War, classes can be either academic or unconventional. You can teach a class about anything that you are passionate about (a skill, a topic, a culture) to the Waltham community. In the past, classes have ranged from yoga, astrophysics, and poetry to how to solve a Rubix cube, entrepreneurship workshops, and so much more. No prior teaching experience is necessary. The registration for Splash teachers is now open! Splash will take place, virtually, on Saturday, November 14th.

This is a great opportunity to gain community service hours, teaching experience, and to share your passion! In addition, it’s only a one-day commitment! If you are interested, please fill out the registration. The deadline to complete this form is Thursday, September 24th.
Your Career Corner with Hiatt Career Center
Recruiters and alumni from all industries and career fields want to speak with Waltham Group and Service Club leaders and volunteers. The Hiatt Career Center works with employers and alumni every day who want to speak with YOU about positions within their organizations, career fields, and industries and to share their career journey from Brandeis.

Where to start?
  • Search thousands of jobs & internships and participate in recruiting events in Handshake here.
  • Meet with a career counselor and get started here.
  • Connect with Brandeis alumni here.
  • Work with Hiatt to host a career or alumni panel here
Community Partner Opportunities
Planetary Health: Protecting nature to protect ourselves in the time of COVID-19 and emerging infectious disease
September 25, 2020
Noon-1 p.m. | Zoom

Recent events—devastating hurricanes in the Caribbean, the worst locust plague in 70 years in East Africa, fires from California to the Amazon, Siberia to Australia, and the Covid-19 pandemic—illustrate more clearly than ever the interconnectedness of human health and the health of our planet. Dr. Myers will discuss his new book: Planetary Health: Protecting Nature to Protect Ourselves which explores how environmental change may impact nearly every dimension of human health and then turns to solutions, ultimately presenting a hopeful vision for the future if we can develop the collective will to change our course.
Access to Power Fellowship

The Access to Power Fellowship is a new organizing fellowship for Jewish young adults (ages 20-39) with disabilities.

The Access to Power Fellowship is open to both professional and volunteer organizers who live anywhere, with any kind of disability. It’s designed to support emerging disabled Jewish organizers to take their leadership to the next level by honing their organizing skills, deepening their disability justice analysis, and exploring how their Judaism connects to their justice work and disability identity, all in community with other Jewish organizers with disabilities. 

This virtual seven-month fellowship is being offered by JOIN for Justice in partnership with Sins Invalid, National Council on Independent Living, and Detroit Disability Power.

More information is available here.
Apply to Be a New Voters Mentor
If you are interested in civic engagement and want to help amplify youth voices in today’s political climate, consider applying to be a New Voters College Mentor!! Mentors guide 1-3 mentees through running a voter registration drive in their high schools. The role requires a low time commitment (details on the application) but makes a huge difference in the mission of New Voters, a youth-led nonprofit working towards 100% voter registration of high school students across the country. Now more than ever, getting young people out to vote is so important!!

More info about New Voters
The Waltham Public Library wants YOUR stories!
How is the COVID pandemic affecting you? How has it changed your daily life? During COVID, have you wondered how peoples' lives changed during the 1918 influenza? Future Waltham citizens will be wondering what life amid a pandemic was like for us, and we want to add your stories to the record. The Waltham Public Library is collecting stories, photos, artwork and other entries that show how the people of Waltham are living life during a pandemic and how daily lives have changed during these times.

Your stories matter! Contribute and submit them here or email them to: dhamlin@minlib.net
Become A Poll Worker
Did you know that the United States is facing a nationwide poll worker shortage? Usually, 56% of poll workers (the people who staff polling places on election day) are over the age of 60, but this year they aren’t signing up due to COVID-19. Unless younger Americans step up, the resulting shortage of poll workers could mean closed polling places.

 How can you help? Register to serve as a poll worker. Visit www.PowerthePolls.org/campus to learn more and apply to serve as a poll worker on election day.

For those on campus: To become a poll worker in Waltham you must be 16 years or older, registered to vote in Massachusetts, attend training and be available to serve the entire day.

Otherwise, you can check your eligibility at https://www.workelections.com/ by entering the address of your current residence (at home or on-campus). Then sign up today at www.PowerthePolls.org/campus  and https://www.workelections.com/. If you have any questions or feedback feel free to reach out!
*Please note that the Department of Community Service provides marketing and may not be in direct partnership with this organization, student group or department. It is the responsibility of all members of this listserv to research all internal and external community engagement initiatives and programs prior to involvement.
Connect with us!
Department of Community Service
Shapiro Campus Center, Room 203
P: 781-736-3237

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