Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

This program serves low to middle income people of any age as they seek to learn more about their finances and how to navigate the world around them. BMAC meets with individuals in a tailored approach to help them in specific, meaningful ways. Classes are taught on budgeting, debt, money mindsets, and more. 

Whitman Teaches the Movement (WTTM) trains Whitman students to visit local Walla Walla Public School's K-12 classrooms to teach age-appropriate lessons about civil rights. Since the beginning, this project partnership has evolved to include lessons about social justice, indigenous issues, and racial inequity. 

The Adopt-A-Grandparent program pairs Whitman students with residents at the nearby Odd Fellows senior home. Volunteers establish relationships with their adopted grandparents, helping to improve the quality of life for the residents through consistent companionship. Together, grandparents and volunteers tell stories, play games, listen to music, read books, go for walks, make crafts, and attend weekly programs at Odd Fellows (chair exercise, bingo, etc.)

Started in 1994 as part of Jamey Wolverton's psychology thesis, the Whitman Friends Mentor Program builds strong and lasting mentor-mentee relationships between Whitman students and Walla Walla elementary schoolers. 

Whitman students join their mentee at recess once a week. Mentees also visit Whitman College each spring for a day long carnival called Mentees to Campus Day. 

Bilingual United volunteers assist in K-3 grade level classrooms at Green Park and Edison elementary schools in Walla Walla. Volunteers act as an academic and emotional support as they transition from learning only in Spanish to learning in English.

Established in 2019, the Whitman College Student Consulting Corps is a program operating through Whitman’s Career and Community Engagement Center. The Consulting Corps, generously funded by the Sherwood Trust, creates paid Student Consultant positions which give current Whitman students real-life experience in the growing field of management consulting while benefiting nonprofits of the Walla Walla community.

In 2016, residents of Walla Walla County and the surrounding region in Washington state identified access to education as their number one priority as a community. In this course, students will research, through course readings, seminar discussions, and work with organizations in the Walla Walla community, the barriers that exist to equitable access to education from pre-K to higher education. Through the course and their work with community organizations, students will be introduced to methodologies from the field of rhetoric that focus on incorporating civic engagement, advocacy, community involvement, and personal reflection into their research. Students will not only learn about the challenges surrounding access to education in Walla Walla, but will participate in local efforts to address issues ranging from trauma-informed education to college preparation, as well as related issues such as access to healthcare and affordable housing that can impede equitable access to education. Student work in the course will include weekly written reflections, formal and informal presentations to the class on selected topics, leading seminar discussion on two occasions, and a final public presentation of the student’s work with their partner organizations over the semester