By Meredith Haas ’24, editor
A night of service event in spring 2022. That’s all it took to get this student hooked on helping the community.
A sophomore physical therapy (PT) major, Emily Lakin surely has a busy schedule. Add her other involvements – playing alto sax in the marching band and serving as vice president of service for Alpha Phi Omega (APO) – on top of that, and she becomes even busier. Yet there’s something that Emily always finds time for despite her chaotic schedule: participating in community service events.
Emily admits that in high school, community service wasn’t a huge part of her extracurricular activities. She was part of her school’s Mini THON committee and devoted a lot of her time to that, but that was the bulk of it. Being part of Mini THON made Emily realize she had an interest in service, but it wasn’t until coming to LVC that she saw this passion really grow.
“I took Jen’s IME for service which really sparked my interest,” Emily said.
She’s referring to the Living and Learning in Service immersive experience course run by Jen Liedtka, LVC’s service and volunteerism coordinator. In this course, students learn about the importance and benefits of serving one’s community, all while being expected to participate in hands-on service events. That’s when Emily first began attending nights of service.
“Nights of service build community,” Emily said. “A lot of people from APO go together. It’s a fun destress time during the week, and you know you are doing a good thing.”
However, the nights of service aren’t even close to all the events that Emily participates in. She’s helped with Special Olympics, done work with American Foundation for Children with AIDS (AFCA) and helps with HUB.
This dedication to service also brought her a unique opportunity – getting to travel outside the country over spring break.
“I went on the service trip to Northern Ireland which was really exciting because it’s a different culture and there’s different people around you.”
The trip was a week long, and gave LVC students the chance to step out of their comfort zone and serve a community other than their own.
Despite only being a sophomore, Emily has established herself as one of Dutchmen Serve’s most active participants. However, she is sure to note that none of her service is for the recognition.
“I don’t do it for people to notice it, I do it because it’s fun,” Emily shared. “You’re surrounded by good people all the time.”
When asked about her favorite aspect of community service, Emily had a quick answer.
“Just helping others who are in a time of need,” she said. “They may not always need help, but there is always going to be a time in a person’s life when they need at least something. It’s important to spread kindness and love, and just be nice to everyone, no matter what.”
From service, Emily has also learned vital life lessons, ones that can help her in everyday life, but also in her future career. Compassion, confidence, people skills, time management – these are only some of the many lessons she has learned and skills she has gained.
“It will help me a lot in the future as a PT because you have to know how to talk to people and have compassion for them,” Emily shared. “I chose this field to be able to help people, and community service has filled that spot until I can actually practice PT.”
For students interested in getting involved in community service, Emily couldn’t emphasize enough just how easy it is. Once can consider taking Jen’s IME – not only can students get an intro to the world of community service, but they can also earn credits while doing it.
“There’s so many ways to find out about opportunities and sign up,” Emily said. You can also always just go to Chapel and ask Jen how you can get involved.”
Emily doesn’t see a time where she won’t want to help her community, even when she has a full-time job as a physical therapist. She feels fortunate that in trying to earn credits for her degree, she found something she has a passion for and looks forward to doing.
“I never feel obligated to do community service,” Emily said. “It’s always about what community service I can do next.”