Student volunteers work at St. Vincent School on S. Figueroa St. Business administration majors Pik-Yan Cheung, a sophomore, and freshman David Shih, paint a basketball backboard. David’s sisters, sophomores Betty and Dinah Shih — also business majors — steady the ladders.

“I like them. They’re different from most people I know. They’re cool,” he said of the nearly 30 volunteers at Spiraling Garden, a garden and community beautification project two blocks from his home near downtown L.A.

The site, run by nonprofit group ARTScorpsLA, at the corner of N. Bixel and Court, was one of 12 served by over 200 USC volunteers during the university’s sixth annual Friends & Neighbors Community Service Day.

USC students, alongside nearly 50 community residents, spent several hours painting, cleaning and gardening at schools, shelters, nonprofit community organizations and even a community theater.

The one-day volunteer blitz is designed to integrate students – especially freshmen – into the community and also to serve as a portal to other volunteer opportunities, said Heather Whitten, coordinator of the event for the USC Volunteer Center.

“To me, the most important thing – no matter where you live – is to be involved in your community,” said Whitten, a senior majoring in music industry.

For Ochoa, who has been working with his soccer coach to turn an abandoned, overgrown, hilly yard into a soccer practice field, the single day was not enough.

“When are you guys coming back?” he called out to volunteers as they hauled tree limbs to the side of the yard.

Whitten hopes to expand USC’s relationship with the community groups served, including organizing monthly one-day volunteer trips to several locations. And Paras Bhakta, who led the team at Spiraling Garden, hopes to consult engineering students and find the right heavy equipment to level Ochoa’s planned soccer field.

Students new to the university often approach the surrounding neighborhood with trepidation, and that is where Friends & Neighbors Day can really make a difference, said Michelle Blanchette, director of the USC Volunteer Center.

“It’s literally the first chance that they’re going to get to walk out into the neighborhood,” she said. “Friends & Neighbors Day is a great way to lead new students directly to very positive things that are happening in the community.”

For some new students, the day of community service came naturally.

“It just feels right,” said Andrew Wei, a freshman majoring in electrical engineering who had volunteered through Key Club at his high school in San Diego. “There’s a lot to do.”

Siblings Dinah, David and Betty Shih were all required to complete at least 15 hours of community service at their high school in Bakersfield. So when David came to USC this fall, it didn’t take much for Dinah, a sophomore, to convince him and Betty, also a sophomore, to join her.

“I just told them I had a great time last year [at Friends & Neighbors Day] and met a lot of new people!” Dinah said, holding the ladder as her brother slathered paint onto a basketball backboard at St. Vincent School.

Trojans participating in USC’s Joint Educational Project (JEP) or after-school programs regularly file in and out of St. Vincent School, but principal Sister Cabrini Thomas hadn’t been offered the massive people-power of Friends & Neighbors Day until this year.

She assigned volunteers to plant flowers, paint play areas on the school’s enormous blacktop and clean classrooms. Of course, she already had plans for next year’s volunteers.

“Its always been my dream to have the United States painted on the blacktop so kids can hop from state to state,” Thomas said. “This is the first time the volunteers have ever come, and I hope it’s not the last!”

Friends & Neighbors Community Service Day was sponsored by the USC Volunteer Center, Hospitality Services, Pertusati Bookstore, Philanthropy Fund, Transportation Services, USC Orientation and Activities and Sparkletts Water. The city of Los Angeles supplied tools and paint for the day’s projects.