BRAZIL – Pruning bushes. Pulling weeds. Spreading mulch. Sweeping sidewalks.
Thirty students from Indiana State University again this year spent their first day of college sprucing up the grounds at the nearby Indiana Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch for future law enforcement officers, at-risk kids, young witnesses, and victims of crime.
Their efforts mark the third year ISU included the 62-acre youth training retreat in their annual day of community service known as Donaghy Day, named in memory of Life Sciences Professor Fred Donaghy. Each year, freshmen fan out across campus and West Central Indiana to perform cleanups and beautification projects like those 1912 alumnus Donaghy spearheaded.
ISU partnerships with ISYR run deep – from meetings and cookouts of Lambda Alpha Epsilon, the professional law enforcement fraternity, to trainings and bivouacs by R.O.T.C. cadets for Indiana State and five other universities and colleges.
“When ISYR was first envisioned, our academy was intended to reach a few hundred middle schoolers each year,” said Scott Minier, executive director and an ISU alumnus. “Today, just a few years later, we annually engage more than 2,000 students — kindergartners through college. They learn and benefit from us, but we also learn and benefit from them.
