Why Our Students Love Giving Back to Their Community
Giving back to their community is shaping these students into leaders. Discover their stories and support the ongoing Student Organization Challenge.
From building beds for children in need and making sandwiches for hungry neighbors to spreading holiday cheer through handwritten cards, hundreds of Syracuse University students give back to their community every year through their involvement with their Recognized Student Organizations.
Now, it’s time to honor the passion of these student leaders through the Fall 2025 Student Organization Challenge, which awards valuable funds to the student groups with the most unique donors and the most social media interaction during October.
Last year, the Syracuse University Volunteer Organization captured the Fall 2024 Challenge, while OrangeSeeds claimed the Spring 2025 Challenge.
Every child should have access to a bed when they go to sleep. That’s the driving force behind the Syracuse University Volunteer Organization’s annual bed-building project. Student leaders like Ryan Edwards ’26 have helped build 132 beds over the past two years, partnering with the local Sleep in Heavenly Peace chapter to get the beds to Central New York children who need them.
“It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done,” says Edwards, SUVO’s vice president and a senior computer science major in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “Delivering these beds to people is a life-changing experience. I’m so grateful to make a difference, and it’s so great knowing we’re able to enrich their lives.”
On Service Saturdays, Nolan Singh ’28 and his OrangeSeeds peers partner with nonprofits like We Rise Above The Streets Recovery Outreach, the Salvation Army and the Nottingham. These efforts culminate in “The Big Event,” the University’s largest student-run community service project.
“It’s a great way to get involved, meet new people and give back,” says Singh, OrangeSeeds’ public relations chair and a sophomore political science major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “But you also grow personally and professionally while immersing yourself in the needs of the community.”
With the Fall 2025 Challenge in full swing, Edwards and Singh stopped by the “‘Cuse Conversations” podcast to share why they give back, how volunteering has shaped them as leaders and why every student should volunteer.
Nolan Singh: There are four pillars that make up what OrangeSeeds is about: mentorship, campus engagement, professional development and community service. They all tie in together.
We’re always looking to help our Seeds—our first-year and transfer students—get involved to find their community and discover their interests. OrangeSeeds is a stepping stone to other organizations on campus.
Ryan Edwards: The Syracuse University Volunteer Organization connects people with places within the University and within the larger Syracuse community that need volunteers for community service. Any SU student can come to our office, tell us their interests and we put together an information packet with different opportunities on and off campus for them to volunteer. Our bed-building project is our biggest event of the year.
Edwards: The president, treasurer, secretary and I are like best friends. It has been an amazing process working with each other. By going through the highs and lows of preparing for these events, we’re able to rely on each other.
Singh: We’re a community service club, but we’re so much more than that. We’ve built a family through the experiences we’ve shared together as we grow into leaders. It opens us up to a whole new world of friendships. I’m living in a house next year with a few of the Seeds from my year and it’s amazing to know that these friendships were built on something so meaningful.
Singh: You feel so fulfilled when you give back. The more you immerse yourself in service, the more you realize it’s not only impactful and making a difference, but it’s fun and you’re building community.
Edwards: As a student here, you have everything you need on campus. But I encourage students to go out and see what the community is like and learn how you can enact change and create something positive.
