Making a Difference

YWCA Tri-County Area Recognizes
Exceptional Student for her Service
to Others

by Neree Aron-Sando

Community service, according to Montgomery County Community College student Nicole Weising, is about making a difference in someone's life.

"It's about bringing joy and hope to someone you may never meet or know personally. But you know you made a difference," she said.

Weising, 24, was named the 2011 Young Woman of the Year at the YWCA Tri-County Area 2011 Tribute to Exceptional Women in Pottstown on Nov. 3, after being nominated by College President Dr. Karen Stout.

"Nicole knows how to really participate in campus life," Dr. Stout wrote in her nominating letter. "Besides simply completing the requirements for an associate's degree at Montgomery County Community College, she has embraced a leadership role and is committed to community service."

As one of four AmeriCorp Scholars in Service to Pennsylvania at the College, her service hours are committed to Ministries on Main Street in Pottstown.

"The churches in the area offer their facilities to the homeless community during the cold months of November through April, providing shelter, and volunteers contribute to the program by cooking breakfast and dinner every day for the residents," Weising explained.

Weising is president of Doug's Corner, a service club at the College's West Campus. Club members help at the churches, by cooking one breakfast and one dinner per month.

During Hunger and Homelessness Week in November, Nicole and fellow Doug's Corner members hosted sessions to teach students on campus to knit hats and mittens for the homeless. She also coordinates the College's student involvement in WMMR's Preston and Steve Campout for Hunger.

Guiding Doug's Corner's effort to feed the homeless last year had a profound effect on Weising and earned Doug's Corner Club of the Year honors.

"The people that I had the opportunity to meet changed my perspective on what homelessness really is," she said. "Community service is something that is unfortunately dying off. The generation coming up is not taught how volunteering can have benefits for the person giving their time but also how it can impact the people that are receiving the donations. 'What can I do for someone else' is a question that people need to start asking themselves."

Weising, a 2006 Souderton Area High School alumna, expects to graduate from Montgomery County Community College in May and transfer to West Chester University, where she will pursue a bachelor's degree in Education in the Early Years. She hopes to teach second or third grade and plans to encourage community service among her own young students.

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