Community Service Day

The Union Mission Volunteers

Today I taught my first class of the new academic year. As always, it is great to get back into the classroom, especially to teach first year students. The new students displayed their usual eagerness and enthusiasm, with just a touch of nervousness and uncertainty.

Last week was orientation week. Like every law school we filled the week with instruction on briefing cases, outlining courses, and taking exams. All important and all well-done by Associate Dean Gantt and my faculty colleagues.


Orientation week ended in a way that is probably not so usual in law schools—or schools of any kind for that matter. We put aside the books on Friday and headed out to 10 locations around Hampton Roads and eastern Virginia to serve the community. One hundred twenty-eight students, faculty, and staff sorted clothes and cleared brush at Union Mission; they worked to protect oyster beds at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation; they assisted Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to provide homes for the less fortunate.

What a great day! I was with the students at Union Mission. The day was hot. The work was hard. Bees were living in the brush and stung several students. Sounds like a recipe for disaster--and yet it truly was a great day! I was impressed by the students’ determination and diligence. I was impressed by their teamwork. And I was most impressed by their willingness to put their own interests aside to serve others.

While this was only our second year for Community Service Day, the day is now a vital part of orientation—and of Regent University School of Law. We were able to provide hundreds of hours of valuable service to friends and neighbors in our community. It was really good for us, too. Students grew to know each other and began to build friendships in a way that they would not have just sitting in a classroom. And the day emphasized to all of us—up front and right at the beginning of the year—what our ultimate mission is: to train a generation of lawyers who are servants. Servants of God and servants of those in need around us.