A U student group is garnering some national attention these days.

Student Politics and Civic Engagement, a recently formed service group in association with the Bennion Community Service Center, put the finishing touches on a chapter the group wrote for a book titled, Leadership and Service Learning to be published by National Campus Compact.

The group differs from other service organizations because, as opposed to taking a reactive approach to social dilemmas, it takes a proactive approach.

As opposed to combating the prevalence of hunger by serving food to the hungry, the student politics group works to eliminate the occurrence of hunger in the first place.

The group’s chapter focuses on the many ways in which college students can affect a change in their respective social spheres.

Being that the campus compact has a national base of more than 900 university agencies, the U students’ message will likely reach a great number of students.

This is a fantastic opportunity for both the U as a whole and the individual student group.

The U is frequently published for the wide array of research done on campus. While this research is essentially good, it also sometimes relegates the U to a purely research-oriented school in some people’s minds.

Because the U does many things well other than research, receiving attention for one is exciting.

The Bennion Center has long been a staple of the Salt Lake City community with its ambitious service projects and social impact initiatives. The center is an integral part of the U community and it puts on some incredible activities that benefit others.

It’s about time the center got some attention for one of those efforts.

But, aside from the overdue attention, the specific nature of the group’s chapter is beneficial to students’ lives too.

It is assumed-most often by students-that the point of a college education is to receive a degree and land a steady job. While this may be one of the points of a college education, it is myopic to assume it is the only one.

Many of the real lessons learned by well-rounded students in college are not taught in classrooms. There is a great deal that can only be discovered by getting out into the community at large.

The Bennion Center has, for a long time, acted as a conduit through which interested students can benefit their community. However, not nearly enough students have traditionally taken advantage of the civic resources at their fingertips. Hopefully, after this chapter gets out into the world, students both at home and abroad will make an effort to do so.