A project at Colorado State University served a variety of audiences providing services for low-income families, and enlisting the help of juvenile offenders who gained a sense of usefulness and self-esteem by helping to provide a service for others. Julie Sieving, a mechanical engineering student designed a domestic solar water heating system which could be easily manufactured and sold for a low price to low-income families. The second side of the service effort arose when it came time to manufacture the water heaters. Youth in the juvenile branch of Larimer County Community Corrections built and assembled the heaters, taking pride in the fact that their work would benefit others in the community.
From Service Matters 1998: Engaging Higher Education In the Renewal of America s Communities and American Democracy
Contact: Dr. Wade O. Troxel at 970.491.6618 or wade {at} longs.lance.colostate(.)edu
