9/11 Day of Service Showcases Montclair Volunteers’ Commitment to Community Service

Montclair State University’s commitment to public service and community partnerships is reflected by the ways student volunteers came together on the 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance to help build homes, feed the hungry and organize donations at New Jersey nonprofit and service organizations.

The meaningful acts of kindness, community service and teamwork by the University’s volunteer Bonner Leaders, NextGen Service Corps and AmeriCorps, as well as Montclair’s sororities and fraternities, exemplify efforts in collaborations with local communities to advance racial justice and equity, improve health and foster student achievement.

The University was recently awarded the prestigious Carnegie Leadership for Public Purpose Classification, which recognizes institutions that have committed to campus-wide efforts to advance leadership in pursuit of public goods, including justice, equity, diversity and liberty. Montclair is one of only 25 U.S. colleges and universities – including the lone New Jersey public institution and one of just 15 public institutions nationwide – to receive the designation.

Inspiring Future Leaders

Montclair is training students to be effective in public service and to make a difference in the world.

• The NextGen Service Corps prepares undergraduates from all disciplines for public service careers.
• The Bonner Leader Program provides students with civic engagement and public service opportunities.

A redesigned Honors Program inspires students to explore public service and creative leadership. The new Honors EDGE program offers academic, experiential, and leadership opportunities.

Montclair is also immersed in a collective impact project in Paterson called “One Square Mile” focused on transforming New Jersey’s third-largest and one of its poorest cities.

• In the city’s public schools, Montclair faculty support teachers and school leaders in the district’s multicultural classrooms.
• Upward Bound prepares Paterson high schoolers for college. Last year, every Upward Bound participant who graduated from high school was accepted into a post-secondary degree program.
• The Communities Organizing for Prevention and Empowerment (C.O.P.E.) Initiative features Montclair students assisting in classes aimed at preventing substance misuse and the spread of HIV among African American and Latino youths.
• On the city’s streets, there are efforts to address harm reduction and criminal justice reforms.

The University’s growing partnership also includes the revival of Hinchliffe Stadium, one of America’s last remaining Negro League ballparks. Montclair alumnus and Paterson native Chuck Muth ’77 and his wife, Laura, made a transformational $5 million gift that allows the University to partner in the creation and operation of a museum to tell the story of the league and the integration of baseball.

How Montclair Observed the 2024 Day of Service and Remembrance

On Saturday, September 7, as in years past, students, faculty and staff, spread out across the region to build homes, clean parks, organize food pantry donations, pack book bags and work with adults with cerebral palsy, among other activities. A campus-wide donation drive contributed school supplies for students at Eastside High School in Paterson. A record number 360 volunteers participated from Montclair and Bloomfield College of Montclair State University.

The University’s Center for Community Engagement sponsors the events to allow students to serve in a meaningful way, honoring all those who died and responded and rekindling the spirit of unity that arose in America in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A similar Day of Service event is held annually to honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

University President Jonathan Koppell, who has made public service a cornerstone of his administration, joins students in the efforts, telling them, “We are a community that is capable of so much when we work together.”

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