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Saudi Student Association Volunteers in Dayton Community

The University of Dayton’s (UD) Saudi Student Association is embodying the spirit of community by giving back to the our neighbors in the Dayton community. The student organization has been hard at work volunteering for several area not-for-profits this semester.

Saudi Student Association President Zaid Alajlan says that the group’s interest in volunteering started as a way to do something positive for both the Saudi student community as well as the UD community. “The best way to get students involved with their community is by this kind of work -- volunteer work,” says Alajlan. “We contacted a nonprofit organization outside of the university to get our students involved with them.”

So far, the Saudi Student Association has volunteered at the Miami Valley/Dayton Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and at two other local nonprofits: Clothes That Work and Crayons to Classrooms. They also have plans to work with additional nonprofits in Ohio this semester, including the Homeless Families Foundation and a cancer support community in Columbus.

A major priority for the Saudi Student Association has been to encourage cross-cultural exchange around the subject of service and giving back. “One of the biggest goals we hope to achieve is to share the spirit of our culture, and to bring the culture of volunteer work back to our country.” says Alajlan. The student organization volunteers for nonprofits across multiple languages and faith backgrounds, and sees service as a way to engage in intercultural dialogue with each other and with members of the Dayton community through a mutually shared interest.

Saudi Student Association Treasurer Abdulrahman Alobaysi says that another important component of volunteering is to learn how nonprofits function in the United States. Alobaysi hopes that having first-hand experience with local organizations will help answer critical questions about how nonprofits operate, like how they can be established, or how they earn funding. He hopes that this knowledge will encourage student volunteers to apply the practices they learn at local nonprofits and get involved in establishing similar volunteer groups when they return to Saudi Arabia.

Both Alobaysi and Alajlan say that volunteering has had a positive impact on them, and they hope that providing more exposure to service will bring awareness to its benefits. “When you’re volunteering, you gaining a lot of things that you’d never expect out of it,” says Alajlan. “A lot of our social media following are people back in our country. We take pictures with people passionate about our work and we transfer it to our country. So we’re trying to utilize our social media to bring awareness [to it].”

“When you give someone your time, that’s the most expensive thing you have,” says Alobaysi. “When we make the bags for Crayons to Classrooms for the students, we make them happy.”

Looking ahead, the student organization wants to encourage other student groups beyond the city of Dayton to get involved in their communities. They’re hoping to connect with other Saudi clubs in neighboring cities like Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo to discuss their experience volunteering in Dayton.

Learn more about the Saudi Student Association on their Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram pages.
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