A Decade of Service Totals 1.6 Million Hours

Servant leadership is a phrase you hear often at Dallas Baptist University. It is the mission of students and faculty alike; a philosophy that forms the heartbeat of both the school's academic instruction and its vibrant involvement in community service.

In total, DBU students have served 1,600,000 hours since 2010 through service hours with local non-profit organizations and churches, mission trips, Service-Learning courses, and other various DBU service events. 

Let's break down those numbers just a bit more as we highlight just a handful DBU students have lived out their calling to serve others this decade:

• On SWAT Service Day in 2010, around 450 students served at 12 locations. In 2019, some 800 students served at 19 service locations. That is nearly double the amount in students who served during one of the busiest weeks of the year at DBU!
• DBU students have shown up faithfully to serve at various annual events in Dallas over the decade: the Martin Luther King Day parade from 2012 to 2019, the Bill Glass Banquet and tailgate from 2013 to 2017, and the Brother Bill's Helping Hand fundraising event from 2013 to 2019.
• Disaster relief efforts spearheaded by ready students included a group of more than 100 students who served with Hurricane Harvey relief in 2017 and around 30 students who served the Dallas community affected by the tornados in October 2019.
• In 2016, five students served at an ACT Dallas event, which empowers inner-city residents against crime and drug houses to restore healthy communities.
• Student involvement in local organizations culminated with representation at fundraising dinners. In 2016, 13 students served with the Men of Nehemiah at a dinner event. In 2019, 15 DBU students served at the Prison Entrepreneurship Dinner, and seven students attended the Pregnancy Resource Center of Grand Prairie's Fundraising dinner in 2019.

Of course, this is just a small taste of what is going on.  They don't account for the students who are working with Awana and Upward groups, serving in homeless shelters, helping in pregnancy crisis centers, leading worship, teaching children around the world, helping to construct business plans in low-income neighborhoods both in Dallas and abroad, and so much more.

Thank you, students, for becoming the servant leaders this world needs. You have blessed so many people in Dallas and beyond in the 2010s. We know you will serve and lead just as fully in the next decade!