Service is big at Saint Louis University. Our students, faculty and staff provide more than 1.6 million volunteer hours and work with more than 500 organizations each year in the greater St. Louis community.
Maybe that’s because there has been a Saint Louis University almost as long as there has been a city of St. Louis itself.
Since 1818, SLU has worked to alleviate ignorance, poverty, injustice and hunger and has extended compassionate care to the ill and the needy. At our core is our service-focused Jesuit mission and our goal to maintain and improve the quality of life for all people.
- Each year, SLU freshman participate in a day of service to connect with each other and the community.
- SLU's Showers of Service event, sponsored the Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, brings 2,000 students and SLU community members together for a campus-wide day of service each spring.
- The Belize2020 project partners SLU with St. Martin's Jesuit parish and school, located in Belize City, to improve the quality of life in the Central American nation.
- SLU was the site of the country’s first Campus Kitchen and is home to one of the nation’s top-five college and university Relay for Life events.
- Billikens join forces with non-profits such as Dance Marathon and Big Brothers, Big Sisters and — when they see a need — start their own.
- Alumni from SLU have gone on to propose solutions for food deserts, start schools for delinquent teens and deliver the youth keynote address to the United Nations.
Facts & Figures
million service hours being raised during SLU's bicentennial year
raised by SLU students through the 2017 Dance Marathon
on Washington Monthly’s list of universities who participate most in community service.
years named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll
What is Service Learning?
Service is so ingrained at SLU, it’s part of the curriculum. This goes far beyond volunteering and works to address the root cause of a problem.
More than 150 courses on the St. Louis campus each semester involve service learning; students volunteer in the St. Louis community — and earn credit — as part of their classes.
Other students are eligible to work up to 15 hours a week at a non-profit agency as part of SLU’s Community Service Federal Work Study Program, or take part in a six-part Social Justice and Advocacy Training series.