Pam Rector, 8/14/07
Taking Action in Local and Global Communities
As director of the Center for Service and Action, alumna Pam Rector leads students in helping others around the world.
When alumna Pam Rector joined LMU’s staff in 1998 as assistant director of what would later become the Center for Service and Action, she was running a small operation consisting of only herself and a few work study students.
Since then, the center has evolved into its own department that offers LMU students the chance to help others around the world.
“We’ve really grown over the years through fundraising and grants,” she says. “The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation gave our office a significant grant followed by a challenge grant and endowment. That’s made all the difference because it’s allowed us to grow. We were able to hire staff, purchase vans … and then the university matched their commitment by funding our new staff positions.”
Last spring, Rector – along with Sister Peg Dolan, R.S.H.M – was honored by Assemblyman Curren D. Price, Jr. for her leadership, volunteerism and commitment to the community.
With Rector and staff’s guidance, students travel to various U.S. and world cities to help communities in need or to simply experience a different culture through the Alternative Breaks program. The center organizes more than 14 each academic year, sending students everywhere from New York City to Guatemala to the Central Valley in California.
“Students say it’s life changing; it’s transformational,” she explains. “Every student who goes on one of these trips doesn’t end up being a social worker or a non profit worker, but the experience helps them to be more socially responsible and just in their future work lives.”
After their trips, Rector says, students gather for an evening called “Stories of Solidarity,” during which they reflect on their experiences. Often, a deepened awareness of social injustice or poverty moves students to take further action.
Like her students, Rector has been affected by her own encounters abroad.
“I lived with a family in Jamaica,” she recalls. “She was a single mom, and I’m a single mom, so it was a really powerful experience to see how that works out in a different culture.”
The idea of giving back to the community and the world is one Rector sees throughout LMU, not just within the Center for Service and Action.
“I really do think people are committed to the mission all across the university,” she says. “And I have seen that people are generally friendly and positive and willing to go the extra mile to get the right thing done.”