Talia N. Gallo

Each year, the Department of Human Services Studies offers the Iris Holt McEwen Community Service Award to a student who has engaged in exemplary service to the university and wider community.

This year’s recipient can be described as a visionary, a scholar, a mentor, a leader, an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and an architect of social change.

A junior from Pennsylvania majoring in Policy Studies with minors in Poverty and Social Justice and Creative Writing, this student is an Honors Fellow, a Presidential Scholarship recipient, and a participant in the Peace Corps Prep Program.

She recently held a Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty internship with the Court Appointed Special Advocates program in Savannah, Georgia and was later hired to serve as their Communications Coordinator.

As a Periclean Scholar in the Class of 2022, she has been working with community partners domestically and in Africa with a focus on sustainable service-learning and cultural competency. Her cohort’s local partner includes Down Home, NC and their partner in Ghana is the nonprofit YOUDRIC.

Faculty and staff seek her wise counsel on a regular basis, as evidenced by her seats on the Poverty and Social Justice Advisory Board and the Kernodle Center for Civic Life Advisory Committee.

Her work as a leader with Elon Volunteers! in the Kernodle Center for Civic Life can be described as nothing short of exceptional.

This year’s recipient began as a leader with the Engage summer program for incoming first-year students.

She later coordinated an Alternative Break experience to Washington, D.C. and engaged with issues such as poverty and urban injustice while working with Luther Place.

Later that year, she coordinated another Alternative Break program to Wilmington, North Carolina where she led a group from Elon to work with the United Methodist Church to help rebuild the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence.

This past year, she has served as the Executive Director of Outreach and Collaboration, where she provides leadership to over 80 student leaders involved in civic engagement on campus and in the community.

She will continue in her Executive Director role next year where she will help take Elon Volunteers! and the Kernodle Center for Civic Life to the next level by enhancing opportunities for students to help create more just communities through work with new organizations such as the Dream Center and Sustainable Alamance.

This year’s recipient of the distinguished Iris Holt McEwen Community Service Award is none other than Talia Gallo. Talia, congratulations on receiving this honor.