Savannah Josey ’23 honored for community service

Josey, a business analytics major, has been recognized by North Carolina Campus Compact for outstanding leadership and service.

Savannah Josey ’23 has been selected for outstanding leadership and service by North Carolina Campus Compact, a statewide network of colleges and universities that are committed to community engagement.

Josey is a recipient of the network’s Community Impact Student Award, which honors one student leader at each member school. The award recognizes students with a deep commitment to community involvement and the ability to inspire peers. North Carolina Campus Compact honored the recipients during a virtual awards ceremony on Nov. 5.

She is majoring in business analytics with a minor in Spanish. She is actively involved in the Kernodle Center for Civic Life programs as part of the Service Living and Learning Community and has served as an alternative break leader on a trip that focused on educational disparities. Josey currently serves in a senior leadership role as a director in the Alternative Break program, a role that allows her to offer guidance and vision to the program and provide mentorship to student coordinators.

Her assistance was pivotal in creating and launching an alternative break this spring during a global pandemic. The break was organized with a local nonprofit organization, the CityGate Dream Center, which serves the Latinx community in the area. As a direct result of her efforts, that alternative break evolved into a new partnership with Elon and has deepened the university’s work connecting community-based learning with diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

At Elon, Josey is a Business Fellow, a member of the Business Honor Roll for Social Responsibility, a residential assistant and senior student ambassador with the Student Professional Development Center. She has participated in numerous business school initiatives that integrate community engagement and social responsibility into conversations, activities and programs. These initiatives have pushed her peers and staff advisors to think more deeply about how to engage others across these two areas.

Kyle Anderson, associate director at the Kernodle Center for Civic Life, nominated Josey for the award. “Savannah leads by example and brings a deep level of thinking and intentionality to everything she does,” Anderson said. “She challenges her peers to think about social issues from a systemic lens and has easily inspired others during her time as a student leader and employee to bring their best selves to the table.”

North Carolina Campus Compact is a collaborative network of colleges and universities committed to educating students for civic and social responsibility, to partnering with communities for positive change and to strengthening democracy. Learn more at www.nccampuscompact.org.