Elon University

Elon, NC
Leo M. Lambert, President
5,230 Students

At Elon University, service programs not only encourage student involvement in the community, they also increase the capacity of local agencies to accept volunteers and to address community needs.

The Leaders in Collaborative Service (LINCS) program places college students with community agencies to serve as volunteer coordinators. LINCS students serve as liaisons for community non-profits where many Elon students perform service. At the Boys and Girls Club, more than 70 students from fraternities, sororities, service organizations, and various service-learning courses volunteer as tutors. The LINCS students are crucial in developing an orientation program and scheduling student volunteers.

In 2002, Elon became one of the first universities in the nation to accept a challenge from the Eugene Lang Foundation to provide a learning experience that would instill in students an abiding sense of social responsibility and civic concern through Project Pericles. The 35 members of each class who are accepted as Periclean Scholars take a series of courses culminating in a class project of local or global social change. The Periclean Scholars of the class of 2006 focused on raising awareness of issues surrounding the spread of HIV/AIDS locally and in Namibia. The class used the talents of faculty and more than 60 students from various disciplines to produce “Testing Positive”, a short film about abuse toward women and the fear of being tested for HIV. The film is now being shown at freshman orientation and other educational programs at universities in the U.S. and abroad. The issue identified by the class of 2007 is malnutrition, locally and in Honduras.

The Community Partner Initiative Grant (CPI) generates creative proposals for service-learning courses based on identified community needs. One of the 11 CPI grants in the spring of 2006 enabled a faculty member in the Health and Human Performance Department to involve 25 Elon students as mentors to 25 girls at risk for becoming obese. They developed a six-week health and wellness program that targets girls from underrepresented minority groups.

Elon has a long-standing commitment to the children of Alamance County, where the university is located. Last year, 100 Elon undergraduates volunteered 1,344 hours of service tutoring and mentoring 150 elementary and middle school students. The School of Education placed 31 Teaching Fellows in 19 programs where they tutored more than 75 students. Another program, Lunch Buddies, pairs Elon students with elementary students for weekly lunch visits. Students serve as friends and mentors to children who have been identified as high risk.