Student Impact

For WPI students, Worcester is their home, and they are constantly striving to give back. Throughout the year, you’ll find our students in public school classrooms tutoring and mentoring, outside cleaning up parks, volunteering in food pantries, and running drives, collections, and fundraisers for organizations throughout the city. Here are some of their contributions.

CONTACT
Location: Higgins House
Phone: +1 (508) 831-6024

Worcester Technical High School

At Worcester Technical High School, WPI students, including a Worcester Tech alum, participate in an after-school tutoring program.

“Tutoring at Worcester Tech was a unique and rewarding experience. Many would come back every Wednesday, which was encouraging and proof that these tutoring sessions were helpful,” volunteer Joana Ripa ’25 said. Worcester Tech students expressed similar feelings about how rewarding the experience was, praising the volunteers for their wide range of knowledge and willingness to help.

Preview A man talking to a child at a desk.
Preview Two young children collaborating with a teacher at a desk
Preview A class of children giving a thumbs up to the woman at the head of the class.

Black Excellence Academy

AmeriCorps member Joshua Young has recruited volunteers for the Black Excellence Academy (BEA), an organization started during the pandemic to help address the disproportional learning gaps experienced by Black K-6 students in Worcester. He worked closely with members of the Black Student Union (BSU) at WPI to provide volunteers for the organization.

BEA expressed appreciation for the partnership, saying “Our students were always so excited to see them (WPI students) and get help from them. They were able to build bonds and truly inspire our students to excel in school.”

Preview A teacher working with a group of children, all smiling
Preview A teacher helping a child one on one in a classroom
Preview A overview shot of a classroom full of students working in groups

Latino Education Institute

Joshua Young has also worked with the Latino Education Institute (LEI) to provide a 4-week robotics program. Using Edison robots, WPI students taught LEI students the basics of robotics and simple programming. Students participating in the program expressed excitement at the opportunity, saying that they looked forward to it each week. LEI has worked closely with WPI and the STEM Education Center in the past and is a strong community partner.

Lambda Chi Alpha: Giving Back to Worcester

WPI’s Greek community has a strong commitment to philanthropy and giving back to the Worcester community. Lambda Chi Alpha is one great example of this commitment. The fraternity instills a personal mission in each of its brothers to help his local community however he can. Every year the fraternity donates upwards of 300,000 pounds of food to homeless shelters and food banks in the greater Worcester community. They also volunteer at Friendly House, helping to serve food and clean up before and after their service.

Athletes Give Back

During the 2021-2022 academic year, WPI’s varsity athletic teams contributed hundreds of hours of service to the city of Worcester. They volunteered for Working for Worcester, the Suicide Prevention Walk, Worcester Green Corps, Relay for Life, the Police Athletic League, Big Brother/Big Sister, Worcester Walk to End Alzheimer’s, and the Food Recovery Network. Several teams also participated in clean-up efforts around the city and in holiday gift-giving drives with organizations such as Elm Park School and Friendly House.

In addition, the Engineers Football Team held its third bone marrow registry drive through Get in the Game: Save a Life, a recruitment program organized by Be the Match and the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation. The program recruits college athletes to join the bone marrow registry.