McGinty, a junior who has been involved with the organization since her freshman year, speaks on what she has learned from her time working with Elon Volunteers! and the Kernodle Center for Civic Life.
The Kernodle Center for Civic Life inspires, educates and prepares students and Elon’s campus to partner with diverse communities to address local and global challenges. Through Elon Volunteers!, the center is a hub for service on campus, providing opportunities for Elon students to engage through various types of programming. All of this could not be possible without the hard work of the center’s approximately 100 student leaders, as it is entirely led and run by students.
Nicole McGinty, a junior from Massachusetts, is the Elon Volunteers! executive director of communication and education. Majoring in public health with a sociocultural focus and minoring in statistics, wellness and health, and poverty and social justice, she has been involved with Elon Volunteers! since her freshman year.
“Freshman year was when I first got involved, it was like COVID 2020 so campus was kind of weird and it was hard to meet people,” McGinty said. “I did a lot of work with the farm shifts and that’s when I think I first kind of broke into the Kernodle Center.”
McGinty began forming a sense of community in the center and continued to volunteer at different sites. She began taking interest in leadership positions her sophomore year, leading an Alternative Spring Break and becoming a coordinator for a partnership new to the Kernodle Center.
“Last year, I was also one of the City Gate Dream Center coordinators which was a new partnership last year. So, it was interesting to see that from the ground up,” McGinty said.
Her leadership and passion for Elon Volunteers! continued to develop as she worked out in the community. She took interest in working more internally in the center as an executive director so that she could find ways to aid in the continued progress of the organization that she cared about.
“My role in education is to educate the leaders before they go out into the community. So, just switching to that internal side and working together with the pro-staff and executive directors to further Elon Volunteers!,” she said.
Through progressing the organization, Elon Volunteers! has also greatly aided in her Elon experience. McGinty plans on conducting research with one of the program’s community partners, the City Gate Dream Center, which she has worked closely with since her sophomore year.