The Jindal School of Management (JSOM) was established within the University of Texas at Dallas in 1975 and is now the largest of UT Dallas’ eight schools, with recent enrollments of over 9,200 students.

We had a conversation with Jillian McNally, Undergraduate Social Engagement Coordinator, to find out how their students find opportunities to volunteer and track their engagement hours in a seamless and impactful way.

What is an aspect of serving that your school is passionate about? 

The Jindal School enriched our undergraduate curriculum with the addition of a social engagement requirement in fall of 2018. This social engagement requirement will enhance students’ education by giving them opportunities to apply classroom knowledge in practical settings. Assisting in community endeavors will enhance understanding of class materials and foster students’ personal and social skill development while strengthening their bond to the community.

In the past, what has been a challenge in organizing volunteers and how does VOMO solve that problem? 

When the Jindal School of Management decided to make Community Engagement a required part of our undergraduate curriculum we knew it would be vital to accurately track hours. Our goal was to find a program that would allow us to do so while also providing tools that would make it easier for our student volunteers and community partners to interact, and VOMO has given us that platform.

How is VOMO helping you recruit and manage your volunteers? 

The VOMO software allows our program to easily track student service hours. We can see how long a student has been a volunteer, what projects they’ve completed or are interested in, and exactly how many hours they earned. For our partners, it has made managing project rosters and verifying hours much simpler.

What kind of impact have you seen by unleashing your volunteers? 

In our first year alone, our volunteers have made an economic impact of over $300,000, which is absolutely amazing. I think for business students especially, being able to associate that economic impact really puts the service they’re doing into perspective. We’ve also had several students accept jobs or positions of leadership in the organizations they’ve served. I’m excited to see what the next year will bring and the kind of impact and relationships we can create with our amazing community partners.