Community Involvement
At St. Ambrose, you're more than just a student, you're also an important part of the Quad Cities community. Perhaps the best part of your college education is learning how you truly can make a difference and become a positive agent of change.
Uplifting dance moves
Our Dance Marathon team is one of our many student Community Service success stories. Hard work and planning by hundreds of SAU students has raised over half a million dollars for The Children’s Miracle Network and the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital!
Making a Difference
Our students typically give more than 100,000 service hours each year to volunteer projects here and across the world.
Learning to Be the Change
In Fall 2016, several First-year students united in a learning community that focused on "Be the Change: Learning and Serving in the Community and World."
They also served as mentors to elementary students at Rock Island Academy in Rock Island, Illinois, and teens at Glenview Middle School in East Moline, Illinois.
Taking Ambrosian Service on the Road
Many SAU students exchanged their time for a traditional spring break trip in 2017 and traveled across the country to serve various communities, families, and the environment.
Urban Plunge
In your first days on campus during Welcome Week, you get the full treatment of what it means to be Ambrosian: serving your community, learning together, staying active, and having fun!
While many good things happen in our classrooms and on our campus, St. Ambrose University students, alumni, faculty and staff are part of making good things happen in the Quad Cities community.
During a typical academic year, Ambrose students volunteer more than 100,000 service hours to local projects and organizations ranging from the campus Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America chapter to building a house for a local family, raking a neighbor's yard, and helping the disabled experience waterskiing.
Students coordinate semi-annual campus blood drives and raise funds for organizations such as the March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and Scott County Special Olympics. They also take service trips to places that include:
- Inner-city Chicago
- East St. Louis
- Appalachia
- New Orleans
- India
- Ecuador
- Ireland
Every Ambrose athletics team completes at least three service projects a year, often with community youth. Each Christmas, student-athletes deliver gifts and play Santa for children at Madison Elementary School. Other teams serve dinner once a month at a local soup kitchen and host local school children on campus to teach them a sport.
Our faculty and staff share their skills and talents through board service and volunteer activities. At least half of our faculty members serve on at least one community board or advisory committee, and almost 10% serve on four or more. Almost two-thirds volunteer for a community organization.
Overall, service by Ambrose faculty and staff has assisted 114 different organizations, including:
- CASI
- Hand in Hand
- Rebuilding Quad Cities Together
- Davenport East Little League
- Camp Shalom
- Scott County Regional Authority
- Local churches
- School Boards
- Parent-teacher organizations