Two UNC Charlotte engineering students have been engaged in service learning since their youth, navigating projects through Boy Scouts. Now, they serve at Charlotte and help other students learn more about community needs and how they can give back. Evan Nazareth and Varshi Rayapalli don’t serve to boost their resumes; rather, they aim to grow holistically and create positive change.
Both Evan and Varshi first got involved in service learning and leadership at Charlotte through the Emerging Leaders program. The Leadership and Community Engagement office offers this to first-year, first-time students to build their leadership skills and get involved on campus. This involvement led both students to the Alternative Service Break program and the SERVE team. Upcoming trips will take place over Fall Break (2024) and Spring Break (2025) and students can apply to join the program in the fall.
Evan explains that, “Alternative Service Break (ASB) is a week of fun, service, and getting outside of your comfort zone. The trip focuses for this [past] year were Environmental Justice, Sustainability, and Racial Justice.” As Site Leaders, Evan and Varshi spent copious amounts of time planning the entire Environmental Justice trip, from contacting organizations to planning team bonding activities and educating trip participants about the issues they would be tackling. Sydney Gallup of the Career Center was a Learning Partner for their trip, providing guidance as needed and being an active participant and learner. This means that the Site Leaders truly got to lead.
They made service learning a powerful tool for engaging in meaningful work. While environmental justice is not a topic that Varshi and Evan tackle in their engineering spaces, it’s an area they are passionate about. Through their leadership involvement, they have managed to grow professionally in ways that many employers will appreciate and value. Not every student wants to spend their non-academic time in an internship, and you do not have to. Varshi mentions that, “This experience opens your mind to new ways of thinking and encourages you to come up with creative solutions. In the end, service learning gives you the tools and the drive to make a real difference, not just in your community, but also in your own life and future job.”
And Evan adds something powerful: “With service learning you are at location experiencing, discussing, or seeing the issue at hand and working with your group to solve that problem. You cannot get that level of experience in a classroom or office setting. Learning and working for causes is just as important as taking the time to go out and serve them.”
Both volunteering and service learning are valuable ways to gain experience and work on many different career skills that are transferable. Whether you are intentionally looking to grow professionally through a traditional internship or more so wanting to spend time focused on passion areas, you are likely building your transferable skills. And for these two students, they will always be active members of their communities, looking to make a difference. “The consistent pursuit of making a difference has become a fundamental part of who I am.” - Varshi
