Each August, Boston University’s incoming freshmen get the chance to move onto campus a week early, meet classmates and lend a hand with volunteer work around the community.

The First-Year Student Outreach Project, a Community Service Center organization, softens the new-to-school jitters each year for about 500 students who participate in nine different issue-areas including children, disabilities, gender focus and HIV/AIDS – and gives upperclassmen coordinators a chance to reconnect with the community.

“At the end of the FYSOP week, no matter what your position was, you are exhausted, but so gratified,” former-FYSOP member Susan Gilmore said.

Now in its 19th year, 150 FYSOP staff members and about 500 volunteers provide valuable service and “a great opportunity to meet people and make the moving in process much less intimidating,” Gilmore, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said.

The FYSOP management is a hierarchy with staff members ranging from sophomores to seniors who lead herds of freshmen through good deeds, becoming “mentors to incoming freshmen,” FYSOP program manager Logan Poole, a CAS sophomore, said.

Both FYSOP freshmen and staff members said they consider FYSOP to be similar to a one-week stay at summer camp.

Poole said she hand selects 18 FYSOP coordinators, or FYCOs, and pairs them up with one of the nine community service objectives. Starting in June, FYCOs bury themselves in the CSC office each day for eight hours to plan the best FYSOP week possible.

Members plan everything from educational packets on community service to guest speakers, Poole said.

“The whole week is a logistical nightmare,” FYSOP staff member Garrett Tillman, a College of Communication junior, said. “The whole time you’re praying that people don’t die and that you won’t end up in jail.”

CAS junior Kendrick Sledge, a FYCO during FYSOP 18, said handling so much responsibility can, at times, be stressful, but that the program is ultimately for the freshman.

“We do our best to provide meaningful service that not only benefits the community, but also provide the first-years with a great way to start their BU experience,” Sledge said in an email

Although FYSOP may appear to be an opportunity for incoming freshmen to move into the residence halls a week early and pick the better bed, it is much more than that, Poole said. She added that she received several thank-you letters from various organizations around the city that have benefited from FYSOP.

“You have so many responsibilities for the program that you really gain valuable skills and learn a lot about yourself,” Sledge said.