Creighton University’s Schlegel Center for Service and Justice (SCSJ) works to engage students in service and advocacy in the Omaha community and beyond.    

Their mission statement is: “The SCSJ seeks to awaken hearts and lives and solidarity to build a more just world. We invite students to do this through service, community, reflection [and] building a more just world,” according to their webpage on the Creighton University website.   

The SCSJ offers students many local service opportunities, according to their webpage. Some of these opportunities involve weekly commitments with a community partner while others are drop-in weekly service opportunities. They also send students on Service and Justice Trips across the country during fall and spring breaks. SCSJ Assistant Director Cristina Hiddleston said these trips were started in 1983.  

“[The SCSJ] is one of the big things that has reframed everything in my life, to be honest,” College of Arts and Sciences Senior Philip Richardson, a local community engagement team leader, said. “It’s given me my best friendships ever. It’s given me an incredible ability to lead and speak up for myself and for others. But I think most of all, I want to do well by the people who do well for me. Omaha treats Creighton students so well … that it’s so nice to give back in a small but meaningful way.”   

This is a sentiment that others involved in service with the SCSJ, including College of Arts and Sciences Junior Eliza Loecke, agree with. Loecke is another local community engagement team leader — about 40-45 students fill these leadership roles, according to Loecke and Richardson — and a coordinator for this semester’s Service and Justice Trip.   

“I coordinate going to the Omaha Public Schools [every week] and working with people that are learning English,” Loecke said. “…You’re instantly going to have a community with the people you go and do service with. I’ve met some really great people, and even in the office we have such a culture of welcoming everyone. And, I think further, you just learn more about yourself, you learn about how you handle challenges, you learn about the people around you and just the experiences that people have that are so different from yours.”   

In addition to service, the SCSJ focuses on advocacy.  

“I think also a big part of the SCSJ is working to understand and discover the root causes behind a lot of the problems that are evident in society,” Local Community Engagement Team Leader Kathryn McGovern, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said. “And so, instead of just doing service, we’re also looking at different social analyses and reflections that talk about the deeper root problems. And then we always engage in advocacy to … work to change those systems, which is a big part of the two feet of love in action, a very Catholic Jesuit idea.”   

The SCSJ is heavily impacted by Creighton’s Catholic Jesuit tradition.    

“One of the biggest things is [the Jesuit value] men and women for and with others,” McGovern said. “So, the way we frame our reflection and service is very much in a community-oriented mindset. We’re not going in trying to change or fix problems or assuming we have the answers, but very much emphasizing solidarity and living alongside the people we’re serving.”   

Students who want to get involved with the SCSJ can stop in their office located in upper Brandeis Hall.    

“I think it should be on everyone’s bucket list to do something with the SCSJ,” Richardson said. “It changed the way I looked at everything, you know. Things stopped being about building a resume, and they started being about being an agent of hope, of love and change in my communities. And that made my time so much more fulfilling and so much less of a chore.” 

Extra quote: 

“I think, even though the SCSJ is not a religious organization, we do follow Catholic social teaching principles. And I think it’s very nice to be grounded in a set of morals that I agree with. You know, I think the difference between volunteering and service is that component. Volunteering is kind of like ‘I’m giving my time up to help someone,’ but service is more like ‘I’m getting to engage with my community. I’m getting to encounter — for me — encounter Christ [and] deepen my relationship with God through others while also building friendships, building relationships and serving the city that has served me.’” -Philip