For students interested in pursuing careers related to community engagement and service (or for students exploring their options), there are innumerable city-wide, state-wide, nation-wide, and international opportunities.
UAB students can find even more volunteer opportunities in Blazer Pulse.
AmeriCorps
AmeriCorps engages more than 75,000 Americans in intensive service each year at nonprofits, schools, public agencies, and community and faith-based groups across the country.
Jones Valley Teaching Farm
Jones Valley Teaching Farm (JVTF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) located in Birmingham, Alabama. JVTF designs innovative, hands-on food education programs that improve student learning and increase student access to healthy food.
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is a service opportunity for motivated changemakers to immerse themselves in a community abroad, working side by side with local leaders to tackle the most pressing challenges of our generation.
City Year
At City Year, we partner with most at-risk schools to help bridge the gap between what their students need and what the schools are designed to provide. In doing so, we’re helping students reach their full potential and graduate high school in communities all across America.
Public Health Associate Program
The Public Health Associate Program is a competitive, two-year, paid training program with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. PHAP associates are assigned to public health agencies and nongovernmental organizations in the United States and US territories and work alongside other professionals across a variety of public health settings.
Emerson National Hunger Fellows
The Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program is a social justice program that trains, inspires, and sustains leaders. Fellows gain field experience fighting hunger and poverty through placements in community-based organizations across the country, and policy experience through placements in Washington, D.C. The program bridges community-based efforts and national public policy, and fellows develop as effective leaders in the movement to end hunger and poverty.
Equal Justice Initiative
The Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. They offer internships and fellowships.
Global Health Corps
Global Health Corps fellows work with high-impact health organizations in yearlong paid positions. They fill critical gaps in their placement organizations as many have non-traditional health backgrounds. Throughout the year, they engage in intensive leadership development and community building, striving to embody our leadership practices as they work to address health inequities across the global health field.
Teach for America
Whether you just graduated college or are considering a career change, your unique experience and skills can be tremendous assets in the classroom. Teach For America corps members represent diverse backgrounds and a range of career experiences. As a corps member, you're a full-time teacher with all the responsibility and opportunity to lead real change.
The CGI University Network (CGI U) is a consortium of colleges and universities that support, mentor, and provide seed funding to leading student innovators and entrepreneurs. UAB is a member of CGI U, dedicated to funding UAB student commitment-makers who in turn take action in the areas of:
- education
- environment and climate change
- peace and human rights
- poverty alleviation
- public health
If you are interested in applying to CGI U to make a commitment to action to address the most pressing needs facing the world today, please review the following and contact the Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research at
Learn More
Chosen Clinton Scholars attend the annual meeting to hear from leading experts in various fields, brainstorm ideas to solve the problems facing the world, share best practices, and form effective partnerships.
Have You been a Clinton Scholar?
Please contact the Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research (
Service Learning Ambassadors (SLA) are a group of undergraduate students who act as representatives of the Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research. The ambassadors encourage student involvement in the UAB community through the promotion of community service and connection to community partners.
Download the 
SLA Constitution to learn more.
Rohini Vummadi
Year: Sophomore Major: Biomedical Sciences Minor: Exercise Science and Chemistry
Riya Naphade
Year: Freshman Major: Biomedical Engineering on pre-med track
Abhai Anand
Year: Freshman
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Minor: Chemistry
Diona Ulmer
Year: Junior
Major: Biomedical science
Minor: STEM education
Madhumita Ravikumar
Year: Freshman
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Gianni Ruiz
Year: Freshman
Major: Biology
Minor: Education
Carlin Chacko
Year: Freshman
Major: Genetics and Genomic Sciences
Minor: Computer Science
Abdullah Shaikh
Year: Freshman
Major: Immunology
Minor: Chemistry
Pranaav Satheesh
Year: Freshman
Major: Neuroscience
Minor: Chemistry
Parmida Amiri
Year: Freshman
Major: Cancer Biology
Minor: Spanish
Simran Daruwalla
Year: Freshman
Major: Immunology
Yashvi Patel
Year: Freshman
Major: Biology
An AmeriCorps VISTA position through the UAB Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research is a year-long service and leadership program open to recent college graduates interested in strengthening UAB’s commitment and service to the Birmingham and Black Belt communities. VISTAs develop and complete projects designed to address educational inequity, public health, environmental sustainability, and economic opportunity initiatives in collaboration with K-12 schools and other community-based organizations.
To learn more about serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA, please visit their website.
Join the Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research as a full-time AmeriCorps VISTA!
National VISTA openings are listed on the AmeriCorps VISTA website. Select Alabama-based opportunities are listed below (or search opportunities by state for a full list).
Current VISTAs
Meghan Courtney
Outreach and Engagement VISTA
She/Her
Alekya Dharmavaram
Outreach and Engagement VISTA
She/Her
Pablo Velez Garcia
Outreach and Engagement VISTA
He/Him
VISTA Opportunities
UAB Outreach and Engagement Fellowship VISTA
The University of Alabama at Birmingham's (UAB) Outreach and Engagement fellows will develop projects designed to increase UAB student and faculty involvement in education, health, and economic opportunity initiatives in collaboration with K-12 schools and other community-based organizations.
Responsibilities:
- Create and manage pathways and incentives for students to develop their community engagement interests, both on- and off-campus, while providing capacity-building opportunities to community partners
- Create and manage additional support structures, including facilitating community partnerships, for faculty members teaching serving-learning courses
- Develop capacity for UAB to increase the number of local students who enroll and succeed in college at UAB, including providing on-campus guidance to those admitted students
- Assist with media outreach efforts, including documenting the quantity and quality of outreach efforts to grow the culture of community engagement across campus
- Assess service-learning course outcomes and evaluate program successes
Successful candidates will exhibit a record of community service and/or civic engagement; demonstrated leadership; the ability to work well with a diverse group of individuals, including college students, children, the elderly, working families, and community-based partners; the ability to multi-task and exhibit flexibility in a fast-paced environment; and a positive and enthusiastic attitude.
Bringing Learning to Life
This is our mission: To create unique experiences during which learning evolves into education and students discover who they are and what they love.
Creating the Next Generation of Civic Leaders
Service Learning connects students and faculty to our non-profit partners, giving them the opportunity to apply classroom knowledge and make a real difference in the local and global community.
Students have the chance to experience the world today. They see the real-world impact of poverty, climate change, and economic disparities. It’s one thing to know these problems and another to experience them first-hand.
Through these experiences, students gain empathy, cultural awareness, and almost without exception, a passion for helping others and working for change.
