Students volunteered in Mount Vernon on Valentine’s Day as part of “Love Your Community Day.”
National Volunteer Week, which runs through Saturday, is an annual observance celebrating the spirit of volunteerism as a hallmark of American life. But for many Kenyon students, it feels like every week.
From tutoring local schoolchildren to cleaning up parkland to assisting at area food pantries, many regularly make time to connect with the Knox County community.
“There is a ton happening,” said Julie Brodie, director of community partnerships at the College. “A lot of students are really interested in the hands-on work of getting out there and helping in our community.”
Just ask Toby Hughes ’26, who started volunteering as a sophomore once a week at Center of Hope, a food pantry in nearby Bladensburg. This year, he started working for the nonprofit and coordinating other volunteers from Kenyon.
A member of Kenyon College Young Democratic Socialists of America, he also joined an effort called the Community Engagement Collective, spearheaded by the Office for Community Partnerships (OCP) to get leaders from clubs across campus to work together to build a stronger culture of engagement.
Hughes said volunteering off campus has allowed him to make deep connections with area residents while doing important work. “Center of Hope is a really powerful mission,” he said. “They’re committed to trying to bring fresh food to people, not just canned food or shelf-stable stuff that you’ll often see in food pantries.”
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This month, more than a hundred members of the campus community helped paint playhouses for local families as part of an annual event called Habitat on the Hill, a partnership between Habitat for Humanity of Knox County, Ohio; OCP; and the Generosity Project at Kenyon.
Earlier this semester, students tidied up Knox County parks and volunteered in Mount Vernon on Valentine’s Day as part of “Love Your Community Day,” organized by OCP and the Cox Health and Counseling Center. And for Martin Luther King Day, students made kits to help those at the Village Network and Columbia Elementary School.
A bevy of student organizations are at the forefront of encouraging — and in some cases requiring — their members to get involved in service activities.
“I’ve found that community service has been the one thing at Kenyon that really allows me to bridge that gap between being a student here and then also being a member of the community,” said Annie Specker ’26.
She is president of Epsilon Delta Mu, a sorority that requires each of its returning members to complete 15 hours of service each semester, which can involve philanthropy or volunteering. Last fall, its members tallied more than 550 hours of service on campus and in Knox County, helping it earn “Outstanding Greek Organization of the Year” honors from the Office of Student Engagement.
The sorority’s popular dog parade fundraiser along Middle Path, held this spring on April 17, collected more than $600 for the Knox County Dog Shelter in Mount Vernon — where some members serve as volunteers — and this weekend members will be planting native plants at the Brown Family Environmental Center as part of a restoration project in conjunction with other student groups.
Athletes at Kenyon actively volunteer as well through groups like the Kenyon Student Athlete Advisory Committee. Its representatives work with Special Olympics athletes who practice basketball and track on campus over the course of the year and also compete.
“That’s been a really great opportunity. It’s incredible to be out there with the athletes,” said Sofia Giordano ’27, KSAAC co-president and a member of the swim team.
Athletes help with programs for various local elementary schools, too, and are among the 150-200 students who volunteer every semester at Wiggin Street Elementary in Gambier, just down the street from the College. There, Kenyon students run sports skills clinics, assist teachers and tutor students.
“That’s one of my favorite parts of the week,” said Ava Hoffman ’27, who volunteers weekly in a fifth-grade classroom.
Hoffman serves as secretary and a service chair of the Archon Society, a Greek coed service organization that requires members to fulfill 18 hours of service each semester. One of her favorite events is when members travel to Mount Vernon each semester to serve a hot meal — which they either purchase or prepare — for the needy at the First Congregational United Church of Christ.
In some cases, this service is an extension of the curricular work students are completing in the classroom. Numerous classes not only introduce students to area nonprofits through site visits but require volunteering as part of the syllabus. Assistant Professor of Sociology Nicholas Theis, for example, requires five hours of volunteer work for students in Knox County as part of his “Sociology of Rural America” class.
Brodie said it’s no surprise that this sort of work is popular with students — and not just because of the practical outcomes of the important work they’re doing.
“There’s a lot of research that shows that when you volunteer, you feel better,” she said. “It’s good for your mental health, it helps build a sense of belonging and it can provide opportunities for experiential learning.”