Our Local Impact
The College in the Community
The college’s contributions to the community includes the high level of volunteerism among faculty, staff, and especially students. 65% of Ursinus students were involved in some type of community service and 20 of them contributed to the college’s ongoing partnerships with nonprofit or community organizations. The college’s commitment to partnering with the Perkiomen Valley School District is evidenced by the creation of the Middle School Mentoring Program, which was established a year ago. In the past year, 30 Ursinus students built relationships with 40+ PV middle schoolers, engaging them in conversations about such vocation, and college education, among other things. A few enterprising students established a new community service club called Virtue (Virtual Ursinus Service), which asked interested students to make cards for well-deserving healthcare workers and veterans. They also set up a virtual camp for Kids Need More, a non-profit organization that is centered on young people with cancer and other critical illnesses.
The college’s contributions to the community also extends to its continued commitment to hosting the popular, “Movies on the Lawn.” The recent “Movies on the Lawn” series attracted 500 moviegoers and visitors to the campus. In addition, residents can continue to patronize the Berman Museum, as well as attend lectures, theater, dance, and music events/productions.
In April of 2021, the college’s Institute for Inclusion and Equity provided a student speaker for the Montgomery County AAPI “Break the Silence: Vigil for Victims of AAPI Discrimination.”
Our Commitment to the Borough of Collegeville
Because its students, and many of its staff and faculty, call Collegeville home, the college does not see itself as operating on an island but considers itself part of the neighborhood. It is no surprise, then, that the college has shown a commitment to supporting the borough’s efforts to revitalize its downtown, specifically the 400 block of Main Street. Over the past year, the college has teamed up with borough officials to engage developers in conversations about revitalization efforts that would continue to make Collegeville “A Great Place to Come Home to.” The ideas that have been generated thus far will surely be shared and tested with the community, but the coming together of the borough and college on this front speaks to our desire to work collaboratively and in concert with each other.
On June 6, 2020, the college joined the borough in a program entitled “To Breathe Again: A Collegeville and Vicinity Memorial for George Floyd.” They have also engaged the local Collegeville Rotary Club, and Borough Council leadership by providing updates on happenings at the college, as well as sharing the measure they undertook to safely re-open the campus to students in August 2020.
Ursinus in the Community News
Ursinus Secures $1 Million in Federal Funding for Main Street Revitalization
It is among $12 million allotted for local projects through the U.S. Congress’s Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) request program.
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