Students United for Action is a group started by Matthew Sacco, an English and Philosophy senior. It was formed to tackle large student issues through personal and direct communication.

Using his own money, Sacco started a campaign to call attention to the issue of sexual assault by distributing glow sticks taped to a brochure. The glow sticks were used as a conversation starter as the students read the information about being careful, being aware, and some suggestions for empowering a bystander to intervene.

Student safety activists distribute messages about preventing sexual assault and empowering bystander intervention.

Sacco started in August by handing out 100 brochures and glow sticks a week at popular locations on campus as students decided their plans for the evening.

His goal was to have more peer-to-peer conversations. “Talking directly with the students engages them and encourages them to help themselves,” said Sacco.

He soon recruited nearly a dozen other student safety activists to help, and the distribution grew to 1,000 a week as the semester went on. Support and volunteers to assemble the kits came from several areas on campus such as Center for Prevention and Outreach and the H Quad Residence Hall.

31 Days of Giving Back Summary

For the month of December, we have shared some of the many ways Stony Brook University gives back to the community. Students, faculty and staff offer thousands of hours of engaged service each year. From raising the spirits of a child in the hospital to sharing the gift of music to cleaning our local parks, volunteerism and community service is the core of the Stony Brook campus.  For the future, Stony Brook will continue to find new ways of connecting our energy, resources and spirit with those in need.

A joint project of the Division of Campus Residences and the School of Health Technology and Management (SHTM), the Stony Brook University Food Pantry aims to combat food insecurity on campus through the distribution of nourishing food and — more importantly — to keep students in school.

“What I’d like is for us to make whatever difference we can to prevent any student from having to choose between textbooks and food,” says Casey McGloin from SHTM and Stony Brook’s Program in Public Health, who is one of the food pantry’s co-founders.

A volunteer helps stock the shelves with donated food.

The SBU Food Pantry is the brainchild of Dr. Carlos Vidal, Associate Dean for Community Engagement and Development in SHTM and a professor in the Health Sciences program, who saw a need for food assistance and modeled the program on other college pantries.

Food donations events are held throughout the year to keep the shelves well stocked. Although it was created with students in mind, the SBU Food Pantry is available to all members of the campus community.

Stony Brook Medicine residents served as volunteers at the 2014 TCS New York City Marathon in Central Park on November 2.

The NYC Marathon is the largest annual marathon in the world and had more than 50,000 runners participating this year.

Some of the Stony Brook medical team volunteering at the NYC Marathon. From left to right: Sean Hsu, Lily Sadri, Christine Garcia, Lindsey Schachter, Kristine Jang and Ayanna Lewis.

The internal medicine residents represented Stony Brook at the finish line medical tent providing acute care for injured runners. They worked collaboratively alongside other medical professionals from the tri-state area.

Medical personnel provided care for thousands of runners at medical tents throughout the race, treating hundreds of patients with injuries such as ankle sprains, dehydration, and severe muscle cramping.

The Stony Brook Rapid Response Team, Barbara Mills and Nancy Wichtendahl, also ran the intensive care unit (ICU) at the finish line seeing critically ill runners prior to transport to hospitals.