COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia International University hosted their annual RAMServe event Tuesday. Students from the university worked on clean up and repair projects all throughout Columbia.
“I hope that we are a light to them,” Miles Rave, senior at CIU, said.
Raven was one of many students getting their hands dirty for a greater cause.
“It’s a fun time working with other students so you get to know people that you’ve never really talked to but also getting to know community members and getting to help people. most of all we’re trying to glorify god through what we do,” he said.
CIU, a Christian and a multi denominational university in the midlands is giving back to the community through their RAMServe project. Ram not only stands for their mascot, but it also carries the meaning of "Renewal Around the Midlands."
“We’re doing things from road clean up to renovating, cleaning apartments, to Heyward Brockington, we’re actually helping clean up a house over in that area. we’re doing things all over the community,” James McCall assistant dean of CIU and director of Christian service learning, said.
With 15 work sites around Columbia, university officials says this day not only benefits the community but students as well.
“The beauty of RAMServe is we get students out of the four walls of college and we get them actually thinking about does it look like for us to be adults serving other people, not just serving ourselves,” he said.
Raven, who has been apart of the program for all four years at CIU, says he’s ready to take what’s he’s learned into the real world.
“Our motto is to know god and to make him known and I feel like I've done that. I've gotten to know god on a very deeper level going here and I can’t wait to make him known through serving at other places wherever god brings me in my life,” Raven said.