Allied Churches' LINCS coordinator proves that it’s never too late to discover a passion for service learning.
When Elon University senior Paige Lucas steps into the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, she’s more than just greeted by familiar faces. Lucas is welcomed into the environment that helped her find a connection to her community.
As an environmental and ecological science major, Lucas has a fascination with improving communities and environments. From a young age, the native of Nashville, Tennessee, enjoyed participating in her community. She began service when she was in middle school by making regular visits to her local animal shelter. Her experiences there led her to more years of service in high school and eventually her college experience at Elon.
However, her involvement at Elon did not begin immediately upon her enrollment. After two years of dedicating to her studies and occasionally volunteering at minor events, Lucas decided that she could be doing more to get involved in the community.
“I started to look for jobs, and that’s when I found the Campus Kitchen summer internship,” Lucas said. “I wanted to get myself into the Kernodle Center. I wanted to get to know more people as well as make a difference and work for a nonprofit.”
Lucas credits her Campus Kitchen Elon University internship with leading her to where she is today. Through her internship, Lucas and other staff members worked to address food insecurity in Alamance County. Lucas helped harvest produce at Loy Farm, cook nutritious meals, and conduct nutritional presentations.
After her positive internship experience, she found her experiences coincided with her personal interests in sustainability and healthy living. The connection she found led her to continue as a member of the Campus Kitchen leadership team.
When the opportunity arose for her to become a Leaders in Collaborative Service coordinator for Allied Churches, she took it. As a LINCS coordinator for Allied Churches, Lucas recruits, coordinates, and guides volunteers and academic service-learning students. Her job is also focused on helping community members get back on their feet by providing both a homeless center and food pantry.
“Allied Churches wants to make sure that everyone is being served in the best way possible,” she said. “If they need a place to stay, we have our shelter, if they need food, we have our food pantry and our lunches and dinners.”
One of her favorite parts about her involvement in the Kernodle Center is the connection between Campus Kitchen and Allied Churches. Through Campus Kitchen, Allied Churches is able to offer meals to community members, and Lucas enjoys being a part of that process.
“It’s nice to kind of take both sides of it and mix them together,” Lucas said. “I get a full view of the social problem of homelessness and hunger. I’m able to show students the cooking side through Campus Kitchen and then show them the serving side and the food pantry through Allied Churches. Through that, you get to see the actual people in the community you’re helping.”
Lucas enjoys giving back just for the sake of doing something good for her community, but it goes deeper than that. She admitted that her favorite part about what she does is the people she has encountered and relationships that she has made.
Lucas’ dedication does not go unnoticed. Stacey Rusterholz, Campus Kitchen project coordinator at Elon, said she is thankful for the contributions Lucas has made for the Kernodle Center.
“Paige is an incredible asset to the Campus Kitchen team,” Rusterholz said. “She is incredibly dedicated to getting the job done, but also has an amazing ability to connect with people and form relationships. Community engagement work is all about building strong relationships.”
Lucas’ experiences throughout the Kernodle Center have opened many doors for her future. She values her experiences with nonprofit organizations at Elon and looks forward to carrying what she’s learned towards helping ocean environments through nonprofit organizations.
Lucas sees the importance of encouraging Elon students to try new things and put themselves out there like she did. If anything, Lucas says that her Elon experience has taught her that it’s never too late to try new things.
“Get started before your senior year,” Lucas advised. “Seeing now how involved I am it makes me wish I had more years to do this, so I encourage people to try new things. Even if you don’t know you’re going to like it, try it—try lots of different little things, everything will fall into place and you find what you’re passionate about.”
To get involved with Campus Kitchen or Allied Churches email campuskitchen@elon.edu or sign up for a volunteer shift.