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Q&A with Amanda Paulus, Senior Director, Community Engaged Learning and External Relations

• Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), Summit County Juvenile Court (2016-2022)
• Akron Mayor’s Institute, Class I (2017)

• What sparked your interest in higher education and experiential learning?
  After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Strategic Communication from The Ohio State University, I worked briefly in the public sector before deciding to pursue a Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from the University of Akron. I wanted a career where I could make a positive impact, and I thought back to my days in college and how much my advisor assisted me on my journey. My mother always thought I would make a good educator, but I never saw myself teaching in a traditional classroom. Higher education seemed like a perfect career to engage with diverse people in a fast and creative environment while having an impact. Shortly after beginning my career at ÐÔ¸£ÎåÔÂÌì University, I volunteered to lead an Alternative Spring Break trip to Youngstown, OH, and found my passion in working alongside students and community partners to enact social change, leading me to seek out professional roles in experiential learning. Through continued opportunities and professional development, I understood deeper connections between systems of power and inequality, and how we can all use our voice and resources to spark change.
   
• What is your favorite part of your position?
  I love the opportunity my role affords me to develop deep and meaningful relationships with a wide variety of people. I am so honored to walk with students on their post-secondary journey. Not only do I get to know students, but their families as well. I also find joy in connecting students to opportunities with external organizations, whether for volunteering, internships, or careers. Finally, it has been inspiring to work with local donors, foundations, and corporations to impact positive social change through corporate responsibility initiatives. Their generosity has been truly transformative for our programs and students’ success.
   
• What are your favorite accomplishments or projects you have worked on? 
  There’s been so many favorite projects over the past 13 years of my career, but leading Flashes Fighting Hunger has been an exciting labor of love. We’ve been able to go from being solely a hot meal program to hosting one of the largest and most robust student-run food security programs in the country! We operate twice-weekly food distributions on campus, a large distribution with the Akron Canton Regional Foodbank monthly at Dix Stadium, and a new food distribution in downtown Kent with the Portage County Health Department, on top of distributing weekly hot meals to local social service agencies. Witnessing KSU and local supporters come together to meet the needs of students, faculty, staff, and community members has been a career highlight and something I am extremely proud of. I know that the work our team puts in directly translates to happier and healthier students and families, creating ripples of good health and educational attainment.
   
• What do you want the people of ÐÔ¸£ÎåÔÂÌì to know about you and your position as Senior Director of Community Engaged Learning and External Relations, (or any other roles you have)?
  As the Senior Director of Community Engaged Learning and External Relations, I create and implement a vision for collaborative programming that centers student learning, community partnerships, and philanthropic support for KSU students and programs. I get to exercise my creativity through designing programs that are innovative and meet the needs of current students and partner organizations, while employing my strategic leadership skills through emphasizing collaborations, efficiency, and assessment to make sure we are accomplishing what we set out to do. I feel very lucky to maintain a strong student-facing component to my role. The students bring my work to life and fuel my personal and professional purpose.
   
• What do you want people to know about Community Engaged Learning?
  CEL focuses our work on four areas of impact: 1) Food Security & Sustainability, 2) Literacy & Educational Access, 3) Voting and Political Engagement, and 4) Environmental Sustainability. The office offers educational presentations and ways to enact positive change in these four areas through one-time and ongoing opportunities for service and advocacy. We host monthly Days of Action, a plethora of smaller service opportunities each week, alternative spring break trips to learn about social and environmental issues and host a variety of both paid and unpaid leadership programs for students to gain hands-on professional experience in leading social change efforts.
   
• What sustainability initiatives is Community Engaged Learning working on this year?
  CEL continues to focus on our reducing food waste and diverting unused food that would otherwise end up in landfills to instead providing food security for our community. This past year, we’ve been able to make great improvements in diverting food waste from our own campus dining program. Unused food is either repurposed to be given away at our on-campus food pantries, used to prepare hot meals, or is composted with local organizations and farms. We also focus on upcycling unused goods like old t-shirts that can be turned into reuseable tote bags, which we provide at our food pantries, or dog toys hat we donate to local animal rescue organizations. Our Alternative Spring Break trips often have a focus on environmental issues and sustainability, such as our trip to West Virginia that focuses on the impact of fossil fuels on local and global communities or our trip to Lake Meade, Nevada which educates on water conservation. Finally, through voter engagement initiatives, we educate students on the voter registration process and how to exercise their right to vote for issues that matter to them such as environmental protection.  
   
• Where is one of your favorite spots to visit on campus? And what makes it your favorite?
  One of my favorite places on campus is the May 4^th Visitor’s Center in Taylor Hall. I enjoy taking my Flashes 101 class there each fall to learn and reflect on the events that occurred at KSU  in 1970. The tour guides and museum curators do a fabulous job of immersing guests in the culture of the late-60s and early-70s and providing historical context in which the tragedy occurred. While extremely emotional, the short film leaves an impact each time I view it and provides for intense discussions between my students and I on the topics like free speech, collective action, systemic injustices, and more. I encourage everyone to make at least one visit to the Visitor’s Center!
   
• Anything else you’d like to add or mention?
  We hope to serve alongside you in the future. Check out all our opportunities to get involved at www.kent.edu/community , where you’ll find a calendar of events and more!

Thank you Amanda!