About SVB

The UT Student Volunteer Board (SVB) is the student programming arm of the Volunteer and Service Learning Center. Since 1987, this group of student leaders has coordinated, promoted, facilitated, and reflected community service opportunities and events for the entire UT community.

SVB Mission

The UT Student Volunteer Board is a team of professional student leaders that provides service opportunities to a University community of over 50,000. We increase awareness and promote ongoing volunteerism to individuals and student organizations.

The University of Texas Student Volunteer Board (SVB) is the programming arm of the university's Volunteer & Service Learning Center. For over 9 years, the student leaders of the SVB have coordinated community service programs involving thousands of UT students. The SVB's portfolio of service programs includes tutoring and teaching in Austin schools, assisting the hungry and homeless, as well as educating UT students on the values of service to the community. Below is information about the mission, structure and programs within the SVB.

The mission of the UT Student Volunteer Board is to instill in university students the commitment and leadership necessary to assist in the integral development of the community, and in such process, prepare responsible citizens. The SVB strives to increase awareness and promote ongoing volunteerism and community service to individuals and student organizations. Through our programs, we plan to give volunteers a well-rounded learning experience.

Volunteering at UT Austin is nothing new. Since the establishment of the university over a century ago, this institution has promoted community service. Throughout the history of the university, student organizations, departments, faculty, staff, and alumni have given of themselves for the benefit of the greater community.

In 1991, the Committee for the Enhancement of the Undergraduate Experience recommended the creation of a volunteer center that would serve to coordinate community service efforts by UT students, resulting in the founding of the University Volunteer Center. Located in the Office of the Dean of Students, the Volunteer Center started as a clearinghouse for agencies and student volunteers.

In 1993 students created The UT Student Volunteer Board (SVB), a student service organization charged with leading service events that would benefit the community and the UT student body. In 1999, the University Volunteer Center supported a student group's idea of creating a large-scale community service event, named The Project. Additionally, the University Volunteer Center incorporated a service learning component into its programs in the Spring of 2000 , as well as creating sponsoring the creation of UT Students Enriching Education through Service (UT SEES) , a student organization to promote academic service learning. To reflect the growing importance of this pedagogy, the University Volunteer Center became the Volunteer and Service Learning Center in 2002.

Today, the Volunteer and Service Learning Center impacts the lives of thousands of UT students, faculty, and staff in regards to community service and service learning programs and services. In collaboration with the Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Office of the Vice President for Students Affairs, the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service, Division of Recreational Sports, the Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum, and community organizations such as Keep Austin Beautiful, the Capital Area United Way, Texas Campus Compact, and other private and public agencies, the Volunteer and Service Learning Center continues to grow and develop with the commitment that every UT student will have the opportunity to experience service to the community by the time they graduate.

"Tx First opened the doors to other experiences and other oportunities. I was able to tutor at an Elementary something that I wouldn´t have done if not for the knowledge of being able to do it. I was also involved in other SVB activities as a result of Tx First."