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Kernodle Center for Civic Life motivates, educates and prepares students for partnerships with diverse communities to address local and global challenges, and gain a deeper understanding of their responsibility to actively contribute to civic life. The center serves as the convener of community-based engaged and experiential student learning opportunities in collaboration with faculty, staff and community partners to address the common good.

During Parker Fairfield’s first year at ������Ƶ in 2020, she took a community-based learning class that required her to spend 30 hours engaging with local education programs. A challenge in the midst of a global pandemic, but she still managed to split her time between the Boys and Girls Club and It Takes a Village Project, a reading initiative spearheaded by the Center for Access and Success at ������Ƶ. Parker, a psychology major, became an America Reads tutor her sophomore year and is now a student coordinator of that program through ������Ƶ Volunteers!

“Working with children has always been a passion of mine and getting to have a direct impact on student’s learning was so meaningful and gave me a real sense of purpose and connection in a time in which opportunities for that were incredibly limited.”

Armed with a sense of community instilled by his upbringing, Emanuel “Manny” Sanchez consistently focuses on enhancing the lives of those around him through service and volunteer opportunities. He is a student coordinator in El Centro, chapter president of Lambda Upsilon Lambda Fraternity, Inc., and treasurer for the Latinx-Hispanic Student Union. He also volunteers at CityGate Dream Center’s after-school program weekly with ������Ƶ’s Kernodle Center for Civic Life.

“I love working with middle and high school students. They remind me of myself when I was younger, so I get excited about connecting with the students and becoming a mentor.”

More than 125 partner organizations work with the Kernodle Center through five signature programs:

• Community-Based Learning: combining learning with community needs as an integrated component of an academic course.
• ������Ƶ Volunteers!: providing opportunities to engage with diverse communities and actively contribute to civic life.
• Campus Kitchen: preparing and delivering meals for local residents experiencing food insecurity in partnership with ������Ƶ Dining.
• ������Ƶ Votes!: providing students with resources to vote and learn about issues at stake in local, state and national elections.
• Habitat for Humanity: committing to help build one house each academic year as one of the country’s most active chapters.

Maddie Johnson, a senior public health and environmental and ecological science major, serves as the executive director for outreach and collaboration for the Kernodle Center for Civic Life at ������Ƶ. In the role, Maddie creates strategies to connect with and retain student volunteers and promotes deeper engagement in the ������Ƶ Volunteers! program. During her four years at ������Ƶ, Johnson served as farm shift and cooking coordinator for Campus Kitchen and has supported the Rise Against Hunger event held every fall.

“From the staff mentorships to the overall comfort the community and office environment provides, it has encouraged me to pursue a master’s in higher education. That’s how much impact the Kernodle Center has had on me.”

After arriving at ������Ƶ as a Business Fellow, Xuan Huynh began seeking ways to serve historically and presently marginalized students. She joined the Center for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity Education as a student coordinator. She’s also a member of the Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and North African Task Force, which aims to identify strategies and organize support for those communities at ������Ƶ. Xuan, a finance and data analytics double major, uses her time to create social good and a more inclusive campus for all students.

“Success has never been about wealth for me. I would like to influence people to assist with generosity. For me, it’s simply a matter of integrity.”