Community Outreach & Opportunity Project (COOP)
Mission
The COOP offers community service opportunities, connecting Hamilton students and employees with Oneida County nonprofit agencies - creating positive change for our community partners as well as educational experiences for our students.
Objective
We strive to make Hamilton College a consistently good neighbor to the surrounding community, offering well-trained and dedicated students the chance to serve in significant and ongoing ways. Through direct service volunteering, internships, philanthropy, awareness and fundraising initiatives, Hamilton students will make broad contributions to the well-being of the off-campus community.
Community
We look to nonprofit agencies and individuals in our surrounding area of Clinton, Utica and Rome as partners in educational experiences for our students. The Hamilton College COOP aims to develop close and enduring relationships with its community partners in order to provide various contexts for learning among Hamilton students and significant opportunities to make a difference locally.
Outreach
The COOP seeks to make Hamilton College a consistently good neighbor to the surrounding community, offering well-trained and dedicated students the chance to serve in significant and ongoing ways. Through direct service volunteering, internships, philanthropy, awareness and fundraising initiatives, Hamilton students will make broad contributions to the well-being of the off-campus community.
Opportunity
We recognize that Hamilton students benefit by their interactions with the local community. Working in the local community in situations often foreign to their experience, a student’s personal and educational development can be shaped in ways not available in the “bubble” of campus life. The local community serves as co-educators for our students, leading them to significant discoveries about themselves and their educational, vocational, and personal goals.
Recent News
Student AXB Volunteers Team Up With Akuamoah-Boateng ’09
Nine students spent part of their winter break teaming up with Maxwell Akuamoah-Boateng ’09 on a community service project in Philadelphia. Akuamoah-Boateng, who serves as the city’s director of operations for community schools, organized the Alternate Break (AXB) trip that focused on youth engagement/urban service.
Community Connections: Students Step Up for the Mohawk Valley
Katie Rockford ’24 first heard about the Harvest, a popular student-powered food-salvage program on campus aimed at tackling local food insecurity issues, from upperclass students during the pandemic. Passionate about environmental and social justice issues herself, Rockford wanted to bring the program back following its necessary COVID-19 hiatus, but knew she’d need a lot of help to make it happen.
Contact
Contact Name
Amy James
COOP Director