Identity & Global Engagement Offices

Graduate in maroon robes with an Odyssey Scholar stole.

The Center for Access and Success

The Center for Access and Success helps students from all backgrounds to have access to and succeed in higher education. The center serves individuals in the Elon University community and surrounding communities from pre-K to adults. Current initiatives include:

  • “It Takes a Village” Project, which helps children in the community who are struggling to read and offers GED/ESL support to area Village parents
  • Elon Academy, a college access and success program for academically promising high school students in the Alamance County community who demonstrate a financial need and/or no family history of college
  • The Odyssey Program, a merit-based program for students who will benefit from an Elon education and demonstrate financial need
  • First-Generation Student Support Services, which works with first-generation college students to support them in their journey toward graduation

Visit the Center for Access and Success website

Flags from different nations hanging above a celebration of the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Center for Race, Ethnicity and Diversity Education

The Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Education (CREDE) provides support and programming for Elon’s African American/Black, Latinx/Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American, Alaskan Native and multiracial communities (ALANAM). Housed within the CREDE is El Centro de Español, which offers opportunities to develop language proficiency in Spanish and learn about Spanish-speaking cultures. Other key programs include:

  • DEEP, which helps the Elon community explore concepts of social justice with a foundation in racial equity
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Celebration, a campus-wide series of events to celebrate the life and legacy of the late Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Student Mentors Advising Rising Talent (S.M.A.R.T Program), which pairs first-year ALANAM students with upper-class student mentors
  • Workshops, seminars and consulting designed to examine the many different perspectives that exist in the Elon community and to increase effective and appropriate communication about identity topics

Visit the CREDE website

Exterior of the Koenigsberger Learning Center building.

Disabilities Resources

Disabilities Resources supports students with disabilities, providing them with appropriate and equal access to the university’s curricula, buildings, programs and other services. Programs include:

  • A peer mentoring program that helps students navigate and thrive on campus
  • Workshops that guide faculty and staff on their rights and responsibilities when working with students who have disabilities
  • The Margaret “Peggy” Leister endowed scholarship, which provides multiple annual awards for upper-level students who are registered with the office
  • Resources like testing rooms and an Assistive Technology lab

Visit the Koenigsberger Learning Center website

Graduates gathered under rainbow-colored balloons for the Lavendar graduation.

The Gender & LGBTQIA Center

The Gender & LGBTQIA Center (GLC) supports, advocates and educates about gender and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex and asexual identities. The center’s work has helped Elon earn four straight years of recognition by Campus Pride as one of the nation’s top-30 LGBTQ-friendly universities. Key programs include:

Visit the GLC website

Elon student reading a book to two children in Malawi.

The Isabella Cannon Global Education Center

The Isabella Cannon Global Education Center (GEC) fosters the development of an inter- culturally competent and globally aware campus community. Signature programs include:

  • Study Abroad, in which 78 percent of Elon graduates have at least one international study experience, with more than 1,400 students studying in more than 110 programs in more than 50 countries for a semester or Winter Term
  • Study USA, which offers centers in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. that provide academic coursework and connect students with internships and alumni support
  • Phoenix GPS: Global Perspective Seminars, a three-course sequence of pre-, during and post-semester away classes for students wishing to advance their intercultural learning

Visit the GEC website

A large group of students marching through campus with signs in support of Black Lives Matter.

Office of Inclusive Excellence Education and Development

The Office of Inclusive Excellence Education and Development serves as an institutional hub for the creation and support of inclusive practice and equity development for all members of the Elon community. It also oversees efforts and policy development for preventing and responding to bias and harassment campus-wide. The office achieves this through:

Visit the OIEED website

Group of people gathered for a service in Truitte Center.

The Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life

The Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life encourages spiritual growth, worldview exploration (religious and secular) and interfaith engagement. Four associate chaplains support Catholic, Jewish, Muslim and Protestant life, and interfaith dialogue meetings are held weekly. Programs include:

  • Numen Lumen, a weekly gathering where members of the Elon community share their own stories and enjoy live music and artistic expression
  • A wide range of student organizations including two with their own dedicated campus facilities — Catholic Campus Ministry at Holland House and Elon Hillel at the Sklut Hillel Center
  • Interfaith Immersion programs such as a lunch-and-learn series, religious holiday celebrations and an interfaith spring break trip that allow students to engage with religious and spiritual traditions outside their own
  • The Spirit and Pride initiative, which connects the spiritual and the LGBTQIA communities in intentionally intersectional work.

Visit the Truitt Center website