The Graduate Student Association is involved with various outreach and community service programs, both on campus and in the greater Houston area. By working with service organizations on campus, we strive to get graduate students and undergraduates working together to make a difference.
If you are interested in volunteering or in serving on the Community Service Committee please contact the GSA VP of Equity and Inclusion, gsaequity@rice.edu.
If you would like to make an announcement about a service opportunity, feel free to submit an announcement.
We also have funding available for graduate student service projects.
For more information on community service and outreach and other opportunities, you can also visit Center for Civic Engagement.
Houston Food Bank
Rice University Graduate Student Association (GSA) organizes volunteering trips to Houston around once every month. “A food bank is a non-profit organization that collects and distributes food to hunger relief charities. Food usually comes from various sources in the food industry, like grocery stores and wholesalers that have thousands of pounds of food to give away - food that could otherwise be thrown away. The Houston Food Bank is America’s largest food bank in distribution to its network of 600 hunger relief charities in 18 southeast Texas counties. They warehouse the food, and with help from volunteers, sort, pack and redistribute it to the community.” You can get more information about the Houston Food Bank from their official site.
Blood Drive
GSA organizes campus wide blood drive twice every semester in collaboration with Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center – Commit for Life.
10 Days of Community Service
GSA organizes 10 Days of Community Service around thanksgiving to enable graduate students to give back to the community through various outreach activities. During 10 Days of service, graduate students participate in various drives for food, books, toys and clothes for community in need.
Collaborations with other groups on campus
GSA participates in events like Sandwiches for All organized by Rice Coalition on Hunger and Homelessness, which is a student lead service and advocacy group at Rice University aimed at tackling poverty and homelessness in Houston.