For second-year Honors College (HC) student Paolo Arante, service provides the opportunity to engage in community partnership and empower a community to give back. Arante is a marketing major and dance minor who enjoys working with and supporting others through extracurricular activities, including serving as the service lead on the HC Serves Leadership Team.
One of Arante’s earliest service experiences includes collaborating with family and friends to transport food and essential items to individuals whose homes were affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
“Committing myself to a mindset of service slowly found its way into my life’s purpose,”
said Arante. “I was at my happiest when I participated in singing for mass and entertaining children of those affected by homelessness so that the parents could get some rest for the night.”
With these experiences, Arante was eager to get involved in unique service opportunities at the HC, and he continues to encourage his peers to serve alongside him.
“I wanted to find a way to cultivate the culture of the HC according to its mission for the students and the pulse of the Rutgers community at large,” said Arante. “I believe that having a service oriented mindset allows one to find their strengths and passions in ways that they might not have thought of.”
When he is not busy fulfilling his academic commitments, Arante spends time engaging with the Department of Leadership and Experiential Learning, the Rutgers Association of Marketing Students, the Office of Career Exploration and Success, and SCREAM Theater. This year, Arante took on an exciting new role as service lead of the HC Serves Leadership Team.
“My all-time favorite experiences had to have been our weekly meetings with the HC Serves Leadership Team members,” said Arante. “I loved engaging with service learning material and getting to the crux of why we are committed to the purpose of our jobs.”
As service lead, one of Arante’s main responsibilities is to plan and implement the HC Serves Series, which is a series of service events that allows HC students to learn about and participate in giving and civic engagement opportunities. Although planning such a large initiative is a momentous task, Arante rose to the challenge with innovative ideas and a desire to collaborate with campus and community partners.
“For me, facilitating HC Serves week was one of the most gratifying experiences to happen this year,” said Arante. “Getting to see the faces of motivated students at the events and answering questions about where they could be more involved has been one big highlight. I also loved hearing back from our partners about how the work would positively impact the members of their community.”
For Arante, collaboration and partnership have always been integral in the creation and completion of service opportunities.
“As the service lead, I had the opportunity to have conversations with very influential people in the work that they do,” said Arante. “These individuals, and my team members, inspire me to want to incorporate service into my professional career beyond university.”
From his first service experience with Hurricane Sandy disaster relief to his current role on the HC Serves Leadership Team, Arante has always been intentional about including and inspiring others to create an environment in which service is a natural part of everyday life.
“It takes a village to raise a child, and I want to cultivate a culture where every individual feels empowered to become part of the community that chooses to engage in a service oriented mindset and invest their time in service projects and events,” said Arante.