Making a local impact
Serving the Common Good
The importance of connecting with the local community is ingrained throughout Elon’s culture. Community-based learning takes place in many academic courses across campus, and service is a common thread through student organizations, athletic teams, and fraternities and sororities, anchored by the nationally recognized Kernodle Center for 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. The Kernodle Center connects Elon students, faculty and staff with service opportunities at nonprofits, schools and government agencies, and, in turn, those partners impart valuable knowledge about community assets, needs and social issues.
More than 125 partner organizations work with the Kernodle Center, and university volunteers have completed more than 1 million hours of service to date. The center’s signature programs include:
More Than a Stay
Staying, eating or attending events at The Inn at Elon helps make a college education possible for many students, with all profits going toward scholarships at the university. Nearly 200 students have received scholarships from Inn at Elon funds totaling more than $2 million.
Transformative Internships
Elon’s nationally recognized Student Professional Development Center and Kernodle Center for Civic Life launched the Campus Alamance summer internship program in summer 2021. This paid, eight-week internship program, offered at no expense to the employers, partners businesses, nonprofit organizations and government entities in Alamance County with talented Elon University interns for a mutually beneficial experience. The program addresses two of the most significant reasons why students forgo summer internships — lack of financial opportunity and access. It offers participating students a $2,500 stipend, given by the university.
One of the intentions of the program is to build a pipeline of talent for employers in the Alamance County area. The program has doubled in community partners and nearly tripled in student participation, a direct response from Alamance County employers seeking to get involved with talented Elon students and hoping to retain them in the area after they graduate.
Fueling the Local Economy
For more than 130 years, Elon has been a significant contributor to the Alamance County economy. Since 2010, Elon has pursued the most transformative period in the university’s history, making an investment of more than $800 million.
In the 2020 fiscal year, Elon generated $372.1 million in direct and indirect economic impact in Alamance County, according to a report by consulting firm Tripp Umbach. The university’s operations created more than $18.8 million in government revenue in Alamance County, which includes the direct taxes paid to state and local government as well as additional indirect tax payments. In the 2019 fiscal year, Elon attracted 136,882 visitors to campus whose spending totaled $133.3 million and generated $17.5 million in government revenue.
Elon is one of the four top employers in Alamance County, along with the Alamance-Burlington School System, LabCorp and Cone Health Alamance Regional Medical Center. One out of every 10 jobs in Alamance County is attributable to the university. As of the 2020 fiscal year, Elon operations supported 5,702 full-time and part-time jobs within Alamance County, including 1,782 direct jobs at the university along with 3,920 additional jobs maintained by other employers due to the university’s operations in the county.
Enacting Positive Change
The Elon Year of Service Fellows Program is a 12-month, post-graduation program connecting Elon graduates with community partners to help tackle challenges in health, education and economic development unique to Alamance County. Fellows utilize their knowledge and skills in collaboration with their partners to strengthen the community and facilitate lasting change. Six local agencies participate in the program: Alamance Achieves, the Alamance County Health Department, Alamance Regional Medical Center, the City of Burlington Economic Development Department, the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation and Impact Alamance.
Throughout their year of service, the Fellows receive strong mentorship from their site supervisors and Elon faculty mentors. Participants are also eligible for an incentive stipend at the completion of the one-year program if they attend graduate school in North Carolina or accept employment in Alamance or a surrounding county. To date, 71% of program alumni have either accepted a job or a ended graduate school in North Carolina the year following their fellowship.
By the Numbers
In the 2022-23 academic year: