St. John’s Office of Community Relations Begins New Student Corps Initiative

September 02, 2009

The Office of Community Relations at St. John's University has announced that students in their junior or senior year can apply for membership in the new Community Relations Student Corps (CRSC). The student corps is a new form of service for exceptional students who would like to help represent the University in the local communities of all its campuses in the New York area.

CRSC will be the community relations “student arm” of the office and is designed to further enhance positive relations with the University’s neighbors, by allowing them an opportunity to get to know some of its finest students.

Applicants who are accepted will attend Office of Community Relations (OCR) events and bi-monthly meetings in order to help in various ways, act as neighborhood ambassadors and make local neighbors feel more a part of the University by its outreach.

The Community Relations Student Corps will assist the Office of Community Relations in extending the University’s Vincentian values of service to the local community and to welcome its neighbors and guests to various events on and off campus. Criteria for selection will be limited to juniors and seniors, who must demonstrate the highest academic achievement, devotion to the University’s Vincentian values, leadership and communication skills, integrity and reliability.

Among the responsibilities student members must be willing to attend several community meetings each semester, as well as various Community Relations events on and off campus. The term is for one academic year.  Members must conduct themselves in a way that reflects positively on the University and be able to respond to guests’ questions courteously and knowledgeably, under the guidance of the OCR administrators.

Interested students can obtain an application form from and return it to the Office of Community Relations (Newman Hall, Room 155) beginning after September 8, 2009. All applications must be received by October 1, 2009.  A limited number of the most qualified students will be selected to serve based on their written application and a personal interview. Student Corps members who complete the academic year term in a satisfactory manner will receive a certificate of merit and a letter of recommendation.

In announcing this new activity by the Office of Community Relations, Joseph Sciame, Vice-President for the area, indicated:  “We see a real need to convey to our wider and external community all of the talents and goodness of many of our students.  The Community Relations Student Corps will assist us in identifying such students who will be our good will ambassadors at community functions and activities.”  Coordinating this effort for the OCR will be Kevin Ryan, J.D., Community Relations Associate.

For further information and activities contact the Office of Community Relations by visiting their website at www.stjohns.edu/communityrelations.