Student Organizations & Programs: The University YMCA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Student Organizations and Programs

Alternative Spring Break engages students through hands-on, experiential learning with grassroots social and environmental justice organizations. Participants attend service trips across the United States during fall, winter, and spring breaks. These trips as well as pre-break meetings, fundraisers, leadership development workshops, and post-break projects within the local community provide students with opportunities for direct service, activism, and education on a wide range of social issues.
Interfaith in Action works to bring together students of different faith backgrounds in community service and interfaith dialogue.
Vis-a-Vis is a student-run volunteer tutoring organization. Volunteers spend valuable time each week as individual tutors and classroom aids in Champaign-Urbana's schools, helping hundreds of at-risk students improve their grades, learn class material, and realize their potential. All schools are conveniently located on MTD bus lines and accessible to students without a car.

Campus Vegetarian Society works to increase awareness of vegetarianism and promote a cruelty-free, sustainable vegetarian/vegan lifestyle through peaceful, non-antagonistic means. Bi-weekly vegetarian potlucks and events such as Quad Food Giveaway serve as resources on nutrition and make vegetarianism more accessible to the members of the Champaign-Urbana community.
Engineers Without Borders is dedicated to implementing sustainable engineering projects to improve the quality of life in developing countries and to training engineering students on issues related to environmental sustainability and international development.
Red Bison works to restore and recreate a natural prairie environment and promote natural area rehabilitation. Members get hands-on experience working with prairie, including removal of non-native species, propagation of native plants, seed collection and dispersal, and prescribed burns.
Students for Environmental Concerns seeks to educate and inform students and community members about environmental issues and works toward positive environmental change on a national, statewide, and local level.

Amnesty International is a worldwide organization of more than 2.2 million members working to promote and protect human rights for all people. The UIUC chapter works to carry out this mission through demonstrations, lectures, petitions and letter-writing campaigns to governments at home and abroad.
Invisible Conflicts seeks to promote attention and concern to local and international issues and conflicts given little or no attention in the media through local educational events. IC also works in partnership with a community in Pajule, Uganda to support a school for orphan children affected by conflict in Northern Uganda.

La Colectiva is a student organization at the University of Illinois that exists to address the challenges faced by the immigrant community within Champaign-Urbana. Their mission is to advocate social justice and change on behalf of all immigrants while simultaneously serving the community by fostering leadership and providing resources through grassroots initiatives.
Philippine Student Association seeks to foster relationships through the education and promotion of Filipino culture. Through events such as the FACT conference, annual fashion show, Barkada cultural dance team, and Fil-amthropy, PSA has fostered community awareness and academic leadership through since 1919.