On Sept. 10, Waltham Group hosted its volunteer recruitment night. The 19 service organizations that comprise Waltham Group tabled with colorful poster boards in Sherman Function Hall to recruit volunteers for their causes. The Waltham Group programs vary greatly in their mission, with volunteer opportunities ranging from elder care to educating youth, working with health providers to battling homelessness and from mentoring programs to environmental advocacy. While each group has its own distinct mission and unique ways of attracting volunteers — one group’s representatives even chose to dress up as a tree and a caterpillar — all groups share the goal of servicing the greater Waltham area and engaging in community beyond Brandeis. The groups were seeking to recruit both regular volunteers as well as coordinators to organize and plan future events.

“[Brandeis students] can really make a really big difference with only one hour a week,” said Elizabeth Ford ’27, a coordinator for General Tutoring, a group that provides free tutoring for students from the Wellesley public school system. The group arranges weekly one-on-one tutoring sessions with Brandeis student-tutors across a variety of subjects. Ford highlighted that General Tutoring’s goal is not just to provide families with important educational resources, but also “to rectify some of the socioeconomic disparities in education.” Ford emphasized the transformative power that one-on-one tutoring can have, citing that Brandeis tutors have worked with students for multiple years and have received many positive testimonials from parents. The tutoring programs are designed so Brandeis students are teaching in their area of interest and experience. 

Aditi Kaushik ’28 has been in Symbiosis for about as long as she has been at Brandeis, joining during her first semester at Brandeis. Now she works as a coordinator for Symbiosis, helping to plan and organize events, as well as setting up collaborations with other environmental groups. Dressed up as a tree, Kaushik explained that Symbiosis is dedicated to all things environmental. They host a variety of events, including trash cleanups and weeding out invasive species, and also host a bi-weekly program teaching young kids about science and the environment. Kaushik emphasized a focus on having fun in all of their events, specifically the group's work with kids, where she said the variety of activities keeps things exciting. “Sometimes we'll do like phases of the moon with Oreos, or […] volcanoes. So like fun little science experiments.” 

While the focus of every Waltham Group program is giving back to the greater Waltham community, the coordinators also had a lot to say about how their time working with their groups has benefited them. “It’s just fun being able to meet all the other people who love touching grass at this school,” Kaushink said. Collaborating with people who have the same passion was frequently cited by coordinators as one of their favorite parts of their service groups. Karishma Bulsara ’27 joined Brandeis Buddies — a program that partners with Opportunities for Inclusion to work with adults who have intellectual or developmental disabilities — in her freshman year alongside her random roommate, and today they are the lead coordinators of the group. Bulsara said, “It’s really fun to work together for something that we both care about.” She continued, saying the people she works with make it so her service never feels like a chore. Every Waltham Group has its own mission, but a common thread between them is that their leaders are passionate about the work they do. Waltham Group described their recruitment night as “very successful” in a post on their Instagram.

—Editor’s Note: Justice Editor Sophia Garcia is a coordinator for the Waltham Group Spectrum and did not contribute to or edit this article.