Tommie Corps, a new program from the University of St. Thomas' Center for the Common Good, is plugging students into volunteer positions and rewarding their charity with scholarship funds.

Students who log over 150 hours of volunteer work throughout July and August are rewarded with $4,000 in scholarship funds, a release recently issued on the university's website said. The program is being facilitated by the generosity of Lee and Penny Anderson as well as the GHR Foundation.

The program gives students hands-on experience with working in areas of need throughout the community. One student, Ulyses Perez Perez, is working at Pillsbury United Communities and has been assisting with food deliveries of vegetables, grains, fruits and other items.

“One fact that has really stuck with me since the start of the program is that one in eight people in Hennepin County do not know where their next meal will come from,” Perez Perez said in the release. “Since the global pandemic, it is one in six people.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the older population greatly and many volunteer gaps have been left open. Casey Gordon, Tommie Corps director and program manager for the Center for the Common Good, hopes that younger students will step up to the challenge.

“A lot of people think there’s a way they’re going to be involved where they just show up and go ding and make a difference,” Gordon said in the release. “But the truth is, it’s the everyday showing up and doing whatever small part it is that you can do and then hopefully over a period of time being able to see that growth in your contribution.”

In addition to charitable volunteer involvement, Tommie Corps has been on the front lines of other issues such as racial inequality in the months following the death of George Floyd.

“We knew we needed to have racial equity and racial justice be a lens that we use in all of our Tommie Corps talks,” Gordon said. University staff members, community members and professors participate by delivering talks on issues such as privilege and power.