Calvin students get hands-on experience serving community in bike shop, youth club

Matt Schanck has been turning wrenches at Oakdale Neighbors’ Boston Square Community Bikes program for two years. He and other students from the NVW dormitory at Calvin College get real-world experience in the Oakdale neighborhood every week. This community/college partnership gives students the opportunity to serve and learn outside the classroom.

Matt is a sophomore at Calvin College, studying engineering. As the community partnership leader for the Noordeweir-VanderWerp (NVW) dorm, Matt volunteers and mobilizes other students to volunteer. He and fellow NVW students repair and refurbish bikes through Oakdale Neighbors’ bike program. Why does he keep coming back? “I love helping others,” Matt says, “and it’s a blast working with the people that volunteer at the shop.” This experience, he says, has “helped me learn how to fix bikes and has taught me that sometimes you can help people without ever seeing how it affects them.”

Matt also helps lead Oakdale Neighbors’ On Our Block youth club, building relationships with neighborhood children. Matt and other Calvin College students serve as mentors, friends, and big brothers. With them neighborhood kids read, study, learn and grow. Although working with neighborhood children is “very time intensive,” Matt hopes that his dormitory is having an impact and leaving a legacy of learning in the neighborhood.