Founder lauds Service Center’s achievements
Help is usually something offered out of self-gratification, but true service is genuinely fulfilling and satisfying, said the founder of USU’s Service Center, Val R. Christensen.
“Go ahead and get your straight A’s, but slip away and volunteer,” Christensen said. “Find some place to serve, because you start to care about how they grow and how they develop.”
The best way to give service is by helping those in need find confidence and the motivation to get back on their feet after experiencing trials, he said.
The Service Center invited Christensen to speak Thursday evening in the TSC Auditorium about his experiences serving at USU and the many other organizations he has been a part of.
Those who truly serve do not need recognition for their actions, he said, and when they are “knocked down” they don’t stay down, but improve and don’t look back.
Christensen arrived at USU as a freshman in 1953, said Jameson Olsen, a member of the Service Council. After receiving his undergraduate degree at USU, he went on to receive a doctorate at Michigan State where he watched the ROTC building burn to the ground after rioting students set it on fire, Christensen said.
Another group of Michigan State students decided to reach out to their community at a time of discontent in the U.S., he said, and this inspired him to return to USU and create an outreach program that benefited the campus and surrounding population.
“We had three programs that we began,” Christensen said. “First, was an environmental one. We gathered leaves and put them in the dump and started a compost. Another was help line. We started a 24-hour service, and I was there to answer the phone and talk to people who just wanted to vent their feelings. I still remember some of those calls. Then we started Special Olympics.”
Decades later, the Service Center has 22 outreach groups, compared to the three that Christensen organized during the first stages of the center’s development. Some of these groups include Storytellers, Best Buddies and Friends to the Elderly.
“You have a reputation here at USU of being a wonderful place to come and serve people,” Christensen said to audience members. “It is student driven, organized and led. At the University of Utah and other places, there are programs that are entirely led by professional staff.”
Service Council member Chanae Weller said after seeing Christensen, she knows the values he set in place for the Service Center still live on.
“Seeing him in person makes the connection so much more real,” Weller said. “The connection is here even when he isn’t here. He values relationships and people … and that correlates directly with people in the Service Center.”
Those who work in the Service Center every year carry Christensen’s legacy through their contributions, Weller said.
By becoming involved in the Service Center, Maddie Busteed, ASUSU’s Service vice president, said she feels she personally represents Christensen.
“Meeting him the couple times I have and (witnessing) his fun and enthusiasm for service gives me that extra motivation,” Busteed said. “I think the motivation behind what I am doing has started because of him.”
The Service Center wasn’t named after Val R. Christensen until 1999, which was after he left USU, because when he was still here, he wouldn’t allow it, Olsen said.
“Reach out and touch — I know it’s corny to say reach out and touch someone — but, that’s service,” Christensen said.
When Christensen’s speech was done, audience members adjourned to the Service Center on the third floor of the Taggart Student Center for Aggie Ice Cream.
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu
– raquel.taylor@aggiemail.usu.edu