DBU Sends Over 700 Individuals Into the Community for SWAT Service Day

"We always look forward to our service project day during SWAT," says Dr. Jay Harley, DBU Vice President for Student Affairs. "It allows our incoming students to experience first-hand our mission to produce servant leaders—individuals who care for others by serving their communities—and what better place to start that than here in the Metroplex?"

As our 2022 Student Welcome and Transition Week, known colloquially as "SWAT Week" by Patriots, came to a close, Dallas Baptist University excitedly sent out over 600 new students accompanied by more than 100 upperclassman leaders and DBU faculty and staff members to serve in 19 different locations across the Metroplex.

This yearly service day is a wonderful opportunity for new students to begin learning and practicing servant leadership, one core element of a DBU education that seeks to produce servant leaders with a heart for others.

Accompanied by upperclassmen leaders, as well as DBU faculty and staff, the groups engaged in clean-up projects, apartment outreach, hunger relief, and a wide variety of service projects with many of DBU's community partners. DBU strives to maintain close connections throughout the Metroplex in order to better serve the surrounding community. This year, students were able to serve with Beautiful Feet homeless ministry, Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid, Dallas Life recovery center for the homeless, Mission Arlington, and many more ministries and organizations in the Dallas area.

As the fall semester begins, Patriots were humbled by the opportunity to kick off the school year by serving others. The vision of DBU is to produce Christ-centered servant leaders who boldly go out into a world that desperately needs the love of Jesus. By starting the school year with an emphasis on local service, Dallas Baptist University is able to make this vision a reality right here in our own backyard, all for the glory of the Father.