CENTER FOR SERVICE AND ACTION | Twenty years ago, Pam Rector ’77, M.A. ’79, M.Ed. ’82, established the Center for Service and Action (CSA) at LMU. The Lion community couldn’t have foreseen that she would start something that would revolutionize how LMU shares our mission with the world, how special the woman behind it was, and how significant her influence would be. Today, we honor her memory and aim to amplify her impact by establishing an endowment to name the Pam Rector Center for Service and Action.
Pam Rector first came to LMU in the mid-1970s, earning three degrees from 1977-1982. When she returned to LMU in 1998 at the helm of what was then known as EPIC (Educational Participation in Communities Program) Career Development Service, she quickly began building a community. After a year as director of the Center for Community Service and Internships, she became director of the Center for Service and Action.
Her vision for CSA was simple: build a community for service-based learning experiences. Within the Division of Student Affairs, CSA’s many offerings — including Alternative Breaks; service organizations; El Espejo, Special Games, ServeLA programs; and many more — put students in direct, personal contact with marginalized and oppressed persons and communities in Los Angeles and around the globe. The thousands of students who have participated in CSA have fostered kinship with others, leading to intellectual inquiry, moral reflection and social action.
Social justice is a hallmark of an LMU education, and CSA’s work integrates community-based learning into our curricula and campus life. Pam’s vision to build vibrant programs that would grow and change over time, responding to the diverse needs of Los Angeles and the world, has come true.
The LMU community’s support can help reach the goal of $1 million to name the office the Pam Rector Center for Service and Action. This endowment allows the center to build capacity to provide transformational experiences for our students that inspires them, in the words of President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D., to create the world we want to live in.
Every gift is a tribute to the woman who gave Lions the gift of CSA, and an endorsement in the future of the Pam Rector Center for Service and Action.
