New students PreSERVE in Burlington

Elon University’s opportunities for service are starting early for a dozen incoming freshmen this week as part of PreSERVE, a first-year summer experience that includes work on a Habitat for Humanity home in Alamance County.

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PreSERVE is a way for new students to meet other freshmen before the formal start of college later this summer.
ticipants spend July 13-19 in a program sponsored by the Kernodle Center for Service Learning. In addition to home building through Habitat for Humanity, the group is taking part in service projects around Burlington, which includes the following groups:

Loaves and Fishes – food distribution
Lifespan – education center for children and adults with developmental disabilities
Burlington Housing Authority – summer program for children
Salvation Army Boys and Girls Club – summer program for children
Burlington Animal Shelter and Pet Adoption Center – domestic animals

Freshman Lindsay Grech said there were many first-year summer experiences to choose from, but since she’ll be living in the Service Learning Community this fall, PreSERVE was a perfect fit. The experience is also great for meeting other freshmen before school starts, she said, including one of her suite mates in the SLC.

PreSERVE facilitators – Elon students who had participated in past programs – scheduled the events.

“It’s kind of hard to describe how I feel seeing these students do what we did a year ago,” said Elon sophomore facilitator William Elias. “It’s nice to see everything come together without any major problems. It’s also interesting for me and the other coordinator, Emily Wise, to be active, but also step back and see the group dynamics of the rising freshmen.”

– Written by Ashley Barnas ’10

Twelve incoming freshmen are taking part this week in PreSERVE, a program that takes them to local agencies such as Habitat for Humanity to assist in ongoing programs.