Volunteering

• I would like to have someone to turn to for guidance regarding my academic and career goals.
• I’d like someone to help me navigate my way on campus.
• I perform better when someone is cheering me on.
• I would like advice on juggling my studies and work commitments.
• I wish I had someone special I could discuss these issues with.

The Connections Program offers Westchester Community College students the opportunity to develop a relationship with a faculty member who can become a role model and advocate for the student by offering support and counsel. Mentoring can take several forms including career exploration and life skills development. By pairing volunteer faculty or staff members with students over the course of a school year, with scheduled meetings in a comfortable environment, the students will be given the opportunity to talk about his or her academic needs, share his or her goals, and discuss concerns and needs.

Find Out More
For more information, please contact:

Student Assistance
Click to submit a question about Westchester Community College.  This service is provided to all active students by the Connections Mentoring Program.

• Where is the Bursar’s Office?

• How will I receive my grades?

• What does “matriculated” mean?

Getting through college involves more than simply completing homework assignments. There’s the whole registration procedure, the buying of books, learning about what resources are available to you, and hundreds of other things you could have questions about. That’s why we’re introducing this new student resource.

If you are currently enrolled for classes and you need answers to questions about policies, procedures or general student-life, Stop by our office and we’ll either answer your questions or direct you to the people who can.

Alumni Council
Graduates of Westchester Community College have a unique opportunity to volunteer by participating in alumni events. Members of the Alumni Council meet once a month to plan programs. Other volunteers help out with mailings, publicity, assisting at actual events or advocating for the College at meetings of the County Legislature.

Business Academy Instructors
The Academy is designed to meet the needs of “small business” owners. It offers an intensive fifteen week program combining executive coaching, classroom training and business plan presentations. Volunteers conduct the classroom training sessions and participate as consultants to review business plans.

Collegium Advisory Council & Instructors
The Collegium for Lifelong Learning is a seniors program offering a menu of challenging intellectual courses that cross many fascinating disciplines. Offerings have included classes on Mid-East Literature, the Landscape of Art, Hollywood Moguls and Fiction, and Science and Survival. Volunteers plan, administer and teach the program.

Conversation Partners
Teamed one-on-one, volunteers help students studying English as a Second Language (ESL) with their daily English speaking skills. Working together one hour a week, Conversation Partners help their students with vocabulary, fluency, and developing confidence in their newly acquired language.

Group Discussion Sessions
Conversation Partners lead additional small group discussion sessions for ESL students helping them practice speaking during this interactive series called “Something To Talk About.”

Financial Coaching Program
The Money Smart Forum offers personal finance tools, resources, and customized advice to help participants manage their money and plan for future success. It is a free service and open to any student on campus.

Italian Club
Offering an incredible array of cultural activities for WCC students and the community at large, volunteers coordinate events, helping with mailings, handling ticket sales and preparing journals. Proceeds raise money to support a student scholarship.

Workplace Culture Coaching
The Program offers business students the opportunity to work one-on-one with a corporate mentor. Students visit their volunteer mentors at their respective corporate sites. Mentors show students the corporate environment while helping them explore career options and the professional working world.

Special Services Mentoring
Volunteers work one-on- one with a special needs student helping them with time management and organizational skills. Working under the guidance of the Disability Services Office, they help their students function more productively in a college environment.

Native Plant Center & Green Thumbs
The Native Plant Center is a hub of activity including lectures, luncheons, an annual plant sale and art show, and field trips. Volunteers on the Steering Committee help set the Center’s agenda, while others help with the annual events or on maintaining the Demonstration Gardens. The Center also runs the Green Thumbs at the College, a group of volunteers helping to beautify the campus each spring.

Special Projects
Volunteers assist with Foundation Mailings, help set up Admission Open Houses, assist in the Registrar’s Office, and serve as ushers at Performing Arts Events and the Presidents Forum on an as needed basis.

Art department volunteers
Using their unique artistic skills such as printmaking, sculpture, painting or drawing, volunteers work hands-on with students in class, offering them guidance and suggestions with their work.

Center for the Arts
The Center for the Arts, Westchester Community College’s ceramic education facility, is one of the most extensive in the county. Volunteers are needed, to assist the studio manager with a broad spectrum of tasks. Individuals must possess a desire to learn, and a willing spirit, no experience is necessary. Click here for more information. Please contact Debora Fitzgerald at 914-606-7516 or email: [email protected]

Tutors
Academic Support Center: Working one-on-one or in small groups with students in a “tutoring center” environment, volunteers can work with reading, math, or ESL skills. Reading is skills based tutoring including note taking, main idea development, and comprehension. Math tutoring begins with computational skills and goes up through college algebra with trigonometry. ESL tutoring focuses on grammar, language and usage.

Writing Center: Teamed one-on-one, volunteers assist and guide students through the organizational and analytical writing process. The work can be as basic as helping with grammar, punctuation, and paragraphing. It can also be as complex as helping with analytical essays, research papers, and documentation.

Math-Physics Tutorial: Tutors work one-on-one or in small groups. The math component of the tutorial encompasses College Algebra with Trigonometry, Statistics, Finite Math, and all levels of Calculus. The physics component encompasses Tech Physics I and II.

Science Tutorial: Tutors work one-on-one or in small groups. They provide assistance with all levels of Biology, Anatomy and Physiology 1 & 2, and all levels of Chemistry.

Computer Tutorials: CIS Tutorial: Tutors help students work on word processing, spreadsheets, database programs, and programming languages.

CS Tutorial: Tutoring for Intro to Computing & Computer Programming, Java, Linux Op System, Computer Architecture & GUI Development.

The Foundation
Foundation volunteers help plan and support special events that are held throughout the year to raise scholarship funds and to enhance the cultural life of the community. Events include Celebrity Salons, the President’s Forum and Spring for Scholarships.

Volunteering at Westchester Community College helps not only the students; it provides many rewards for the volunteers as well. They love the academic environment and the beauty of campus, and they enjoy the collegial relationship they have with Westchester Community College professionals. Many say they learn even more than they give. As we usher in a new era and spirit of volunteerism in the United States, if you are interested in answering this “Call to Service,” we would be happy to find the right match for you here on campus. Our volunteers care about our students who are forever grateful and typically say: “This is such a gift! We couldn’t get help like this anywhere else.”

There are a multitude of programs here at the College through which employees can volunteer their time and talents to help our students. Most of these are flexible and have a profound effect on our students while providing big rewards for volunteers.

Programs range from one-on-one mentoring partnerships in your business setting to a “Day of Service” on campus.

Some opportunities include:

• Workplace mentoring
• Conversation partners
• Job shadowing
• Day of Service/campus beautification
• Participation on Career/Professional Panels and workshops
• Business peer-to-peer coaching