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SILVER TAPS Lucas Hitters, Isabella Elaine Ungerman will be honored on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at Academic Plaza at 10:30 p.m. A2

SPORTS Blacked-out Kyle Field hosts undefeated No. 6 A&M against one-loss Mississippi State on Saturday, Oct. 4 B1

Abdurahman Azeez — THE BATTALION

Geography junior Mary Grace Stuart and forensic investigative science junior Sarah Friedman play games with elementary students during after-school care at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Brazos Valley on Monday, Sept. 29, 2025.

Selfless Service simplified across Aggieland

By Avery Kracmer Associate Life & Arts Editor Dozens of kids rush off the bus in anticipation of the highlight of their day: after-school care at the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Brazos Valley. Among controlled chaos, Texas A&M students teach kids aging from six to 18 everything from multiplication and division to how to throw a football and even how to tie their shoes. “It is pretty cool to see the light kind of flick on, and they say, ‘Hey, I understand this,’” volunteer and industrial distribution senior Austin Hull said. “It’s pretty rewarding to teach somebody how to do something for the first time, and it’s somebody that actually wants to learn.” For Hull, serving kids in the community has been a crucial part of his time at A&M — an opportunity he signed up for through Aggieland Serves, a new centralized volunteer-matching platform for service opportunities in Bryan-College Station. Prior to the recent pilot launch of Aggieland Serves, the Bryan-College Station community lacked a universal service system directly connected to the university for opportunity outreach, Program Manager in the Office of Community Engagement Kimberly Fox said. From one-offs to one hub With a community centered around volunteerism and a campus rooted in Selfless Service, Fox recognized the need to match volunteers with community needs. Serving as the connector between local nonprofit organizations and faculty, staff and students, Fox identified a disconnect: Many nonprofits’ biggest challenge was finding consistent longterm volunteers. “The nonprofits had to do a lot of legwork to reach out to individual student orgs, and it was just a lot of one-offs,” Fox said. “And

Tuition and general fees are just $203 per semester credit hour.

those relationships might continue for a couple of years, but then someone would leave a position either at the organization or on campus and that relationship building had to start back over.” For three years, Fox searched for an all-inone platform. After researching what other Southeastern Conference schools and peer institutions used, GivePulse offered exactly what she was looking for. The new program targeted all students, staff and faculty at A&M creating an easy-access hub for service opportunities across Bryan-College Station. “Right now, we are just getting things started now that students are back on campus,” Fox said. “So we are trying to find that balance to have the volunteer opportunities available, as well as having the volunteers

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the volunteers that they’ve had in the past and follow up with them and just to have a longterm relationship.” The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Brazos Valley has worked closely with Aggieland Serves in leveraging its platform to maximize daily volunteer opportunities. With a constant need for volunteers, English senior and Program Administrator Rodneshia Broades said the platform brings an opportunity to reach more kids in the Brazos Valley while developing integral skills for Aggies. “It opens up our volunteer base to reach more students at A&M, and of course, them coming in here to volunteer,” Broades said. “It’s a win-win partnership. It allows students to come and build communication skills, leadership skills, while also they’re positive

We’re all here together for at least four years, right? And so I believe you should leave things better than you found it. Austin Hull Industrial Distribution Senior

to sign up for those opportunities. So what we’re doing is trying to work with those student orgs and campus organizations to leverage the relationships they already have with nonprofits in our community.” A lifeline for local nonprofits Previously, many local nonprofits used spreadsheets, SignUpGenius or traditional pen and paper for their volunteer opportunities. Fox noticed those systems were beneficial for single cases, but for recurring volunteer events, the nonprofits often found themselves in a bind. “It was really hard to manage the sign-up process, the check-in process and then any reflection and follow-up afterward,” Fox said. “Where they may have had to do that in three different ways, now that can all be done through Aggieland Serves, and it’s really easy for them to continue those relationships with

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All-in-one platform Aggieland Serves connects students, faculty, staff with service opportunities across Bryan-College Station

experiences for our youth.” Broades has watched the volunteer base grow more in recent months than at any other time since starting with the program almost two years ago. Through Aggieland Serves, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Brazos Valley is able to send feedback forms and reflections to volunteers to complete in order to continue improving the program and maintaining long-term relationships with volunteers. “Those reflections are a game changer,” Broades said. “It also allows those who are interested in volunteering at the club to see other people’s experiences, to kind of figure out if they want to serve in other ways. One of the things that I love hearing the kids say is that they want to go to Texas A&M one day. And I think, in part, a lot of that is because they get to talk to the Aggie volunteers when they’re here, and that mentorship relationship that they have with the kids.”

Students’ service success Hull, a frequent Boys & Girls Clubs volunteer, learned about the platform through his men’s organization at A&M, Aggie SUITS. With the organization’s primary philanthropy being the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Brazos Valley, Hull has found volunteering easier to navigate and is better able to keep track of his points through Aggieland Serves. “It’s important to serve your community,” Hull said. “We’re all here together for at least four years, right? And so I believe you should leave things better than you found it. And with the platform that we’re using, it’s made it really easy to do that and really easy to kind of understand how much you put in and track it that way.” Biomedical sciences senior and Philanthropy Chair Vineet Erella has led the transition for Aggie SUITS from pen-and-paper signups to Aggieland Serves. Erella said the platform centralizes all of the Boys & Girls Clubs’ service opportunities for the group’s over 70 members and connects the organization to other opportunities in the community. “One of the main things I wanted to do as a service executive was give my guys as many opportunities as I possibly could,” Erella said. “Service is the first pillar for our org, so I wanted to make sure it’s a big commitment for us, and my thing was just giving those opportunities, and this website makes it a lot easier for that.” Lessons in action Aggieland Serves has also established a connection with the College of Architecture — more specifically, the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. Senior Program Coordinator Jeewasmi Thapa and Program Coordinator Cedric Shy spearheaded the collaboration for this year’s community initiative in Pine Island; PLAN 661, a community engagement course, uses the platform to bridge the gap of long-term projects, providing pre-and-post surveys accessible to students and professors.

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