Centennial Service Day was originally designed as the final activity of DePaul’s centennial anniversary year. Over fifteen hundred volunteers from the student body, faculty and staff gave one day to community service. Teams went to two Chicago Housing Authority senior citizens complexes and to over 60 Archdiocese of Chicago elementary and high schools to do painting, gardening, general clean-up and other tasks. The response from the University community was so strong and the day so successful that we are planning to make Service Day an annual event in which DePaul University as a whole renews its commitment to serving the community. We hope that over time we can increase the number of our partners and the scope of work we do.

DePaul University is a Catholic, urban institution, which was founded in 1898 to educate the children of Chicago’s large immigrant community, and has had service and citizenship as part of its core values throughout its history. DePaul has taken very seriously its responsibilities as a member of the larger community of Chicago. As it grew, the University included in its mission the education not only of first generation Americans, but also other non-traditional and underserved students and has as one of its goals being an internationally known provider of the highest quality professional education for adult, part-time students. In recent years the University has intensified its efforts at community service through a wide variety of programs that aim to provide solutions to the problems that face Chicago and many other large American cities.