Make a Difference
At USD, students enjoy abundant opportunities to serve with compassion, practice changemaking and address humanity’s urgent challenges. We are extremely proud of the way many of our faculty include community service learning in their courses — offering students the chance to connect their course work to the real world in ways that make a real difference.
So whether it's as a part of one of your classes or a one-time volunteer opportunity, your time at USD will include countless chances to explore what it means to serve.
Through the many service projects, immersion experiences and community partnerships we offer, USD students dedicate more than 400,000 hours each year to making a positive difference in our local, regional, and global communities.
- Every Saturday, students participate in Pancakes Serving Up Hope, making fresh pancakes topped to share with families experiencing homelessness downtown.
- Every two weeks, USD students prepare and share a meal with the residents of Rachel's Night Shelter, a Catholic Charities program for women, also located in downtown in San Diego.
- Once a month, students visit local nursing homes to play games, lead crafts, serve ice cream and develop friendships.
- Three times a semester, students spend a day serving, learning and sharing life with our neighbors in Tijuana.
- Inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si', the Sustainability Club organizes clothing drives, bottle and can recycling, and water usage awareness.
- Each year, students participate in transformative immersion trips to East Los Angeles, the Dominican Republic and South Africa.