Into the Streets assembles student volunteers

On Oct. 3, University of Cincinnati students braved the early Saturday morning for the Center for Community Engagement’s Into the Streets program.

Into the Streets, a volunteer program dedicated to improving Cincinnati, gave students the opportunity to work on 22 different projects.

More than 200 students met to serve both profit and non-profit organizations like Habitat for Humanity, the Cincinnati Zoo and Over-the-Rhine Community Housing.

Students involved in Into the Streets do everything from creating murals and cleaning up the city to working on landscaping projects.

Each project has one or two team leaders, all of whom are also student volunteers.

Stephanie McBride, a master of business administration student, is a team leader working to clean up porches for Northside Community Housing.

“I really believe in Cincinnati,” McBride said. She chose to volunteer for Into the Streets because she feels it provides “good benefits for helping the community and inspires others.”

In previous years, the variety of community projects has encouraged more students to participate. Last year, there were 150 volunteers.

“This is the largest Into the Streets we’ve done so far,” said Calre Zlatic, the program coordinator.

Many of the student volunteers have required community services hours for various scholarships.

“I heard [about Into the Streets] through e-mail from several organizations, including Circle K, and by word of mouth,” said Brad Theilman, a first-year biomedical engineering student.

A free breakfast was donated by Panera Bread for the student volunteers. CCE also provided students with a free lunch and a UC volunteer T-shirt.

The students were transported to their volunteering sites by school buses and vans that UC’s Nightwalk provided. Some students also walked or drove to local sites.

Into the Streets is supported financially by CCE’s budget and UC parking services.

“We have really been able to pull this together, thanks to everyone’s help,” said Zlatic. “It’s been really phenomenal.”