Bauder has been both a participant and a leader in community service initiatives for much of his adult life. He believes that service is a natural complement to a liberal arts education, both while one is in school and for the rest of one's life. We talk about a liberal arts education preparing you for life. I see public service as one of the central pillars of such an education. There are also immediate, tangible results, he notes.
Community service provides a good way to make connections in a new city or at a new job.
Volunteers are acting as good citizens while making a place for themselves in the community. While most people feel it's important in and of itself, they also tend to reflect on the larger picture and consider how it applies to their life. In October, Bauder spoke at the Inaugural Symposium, which was devoted to the premise that service and the liberal arts are somehow allied. Mass. He echoed Bauder's sentiments, speaking of how a liberal arts education actually taught him to give. I learned to be comfortable with ambiguity and to appreciate humanity, in both its suffering and its joy.