PEL Alumni Ambassadors: The Year in Review

From attending a Rays game in September 2015 to catching some rays at the PEL Porch Party in June 2016, Alumni Ambassadors spread the good news of Eckerd College's PEL in a number of ways this year:

 
PEL Alumni Social & Tampa Bay Rays Game: In September, 2015, a group of PEL Alumni Ambassadors gathered first at Ferg's Sports Bar and Grill then moved to the Trop to watch the Tampa Bay Rays play the Baltimore Orioles. A portion of the proceeds benefited the PEL Annual Scholarship Fund.

Sallie House Fun Day volunteers gather for a group photo.

Sallie House Fun Day: In November 2015, PEL Alumni Ambassadors organized a fun day for 48 children and eight staff members from the St. Petersburg Salvation Army's Sallie House and Children’s Village, two crisis shelters serving local children.

A group of 30 volunteers, including PEL and residential students, alumni, staff, and faculty, hosted an array of activities for the young visitors, who played field games, read stories, created brightly colored sand pictures, learned about marine animals in touch tanks provided by the Galbraith Marine Science Lab, and ate lunch in the dining hall. Many of the children saw what a college is for the first time, and volunteers commented on the joy of working in an inter-generational and cross-campus event.

Writers in Paradise Pre-Party: In January 2016, PEL Alumni Ambassadors sponsored an event for about 30 PEL alumni who had majored, minored, or completed a concentration in creative writing or literature.

The group gathered before the opening night of Writers in Paradise, an internationally recognized writing conference hosted by Eckerd College, to share writing news and accomplishments and to hear St. Petersburg Poet Laureate and Eckerd PEL Professor Helen Wallace speak.

PEL Alumni Reception at Eckerd College Reunion Weekend:  In March 2016, PEL Alumni Ambassadors helped organize the PEL Alumni Reception held at Lewis House as part of the Eckerd College Reunion Weekend.




 

Quest for Meaning Classes: In May 2016, Alumni Ambassadors spoke to PEL students in  the Quest for Meaning courses, most of whom would be graduating that month or in August, about life after PEL and about becoming an Alumni Ambassador themselves.




Throughout the year, PEL Alumni Ambassadors have:

Akin-tunde Akintewe '15 (Visual Arts) shares his PEL story.

• Spoken on panels and in classes about their work and life experiences

• Shared their PEL stories on video and in print to help Eckerd PEL publicize the program 

• Worked with ASPEC and other committees at Eckerd on community projects and initiatives

• Met to consider ways to provide Eckerd PEL alumni with networking opportunities and other resources

PEL Porch Party: June 2016, PEL Alumni Ambassadors helped organize a gathering at Lewis House on the main campus to welcome newly graduated students from the Class of 2016 into the ranks of PEL Alumni.

PEL Porch Party in June 2016

Want to become involved as a PEL Alumni Ambassador? Contact Donna Littell at litteldj@eckerd edu or visit the alumni page at https://www.eckerd.edu/pel/alumni/

Alumni College: Ready to get back to class? Our Alumni College program offers PEL courses to Eckerd College alumni at a reduced rate of $300 per class (for most classes).

Alumni College is a great way to add a major or a minor to your degree, pursue professional development credits at a reasonable cost, or take individual classes just for fun. You will also be helping others because when you enroll, a portion of your tuition is a scholarship donation (and a charitable tax deduction).
Learn more about this great opportunity for professional development or personal fulfillment.

PEL & Residential Alumni & Students host Fun Day for children in crisis centers

Back row l-r: Unidentified residential student; Madeline Streilein ’18; Kyla Isakson ’19; Anjali Boyd ’19; unidentified residential student; Bob Albury PEL ’09; Anna Klingenberg ’15, Campus Activities Intern; John Alchin; Tina Horn PEL ’14; Steve Haftke  Front row l-r: Todd DeLozier PEL ’09; Jenna Behnke ‘15, AmeriCorps VISTA Intern in Office of Service Learning; Peggy Albury PEL ’13; Donna Littell ’75, PEL Marketing Coordinator; Pam Butler PEL ’19; Janice Umbarger-LeFebvre PEL ’19; Jerry Kyte PEL ’17; Elissa Alchin ’14; Jamison DeLozier; Not pictured are Dr. Ron Porter, Director of Service Learning,Connie Murphy PEL ‘08, Sydney Cavero, Maggie Cooper, Nick Dalton, Matthew de Braun, Jesie Felipe, Matthew Hein, and Alyssa Troxel.

by Amanda Hagood

On Saturday, November 14th, Hough quadrangle came to life with the sound of laughter as Eckerd volunteers welcomed 48 children and eight staff members from the St. Petersburg Salvation Army's Sallie House and Children’s Village, two crisis shelters serving local children, to a campus-wide fun day. A group of 30 volunteers, including PEL and residential students, alumni, staff, and faculty, hosted an array of activities for the young visitors, who played field games, read stories, created brightly colored sand pictures, learned about marine animals in touch tanks provided by the Galbraith Marine Science Lab, and ate lunch in the dining hall.

Rose Harris, Director of Children's Services for the St. Petersburg Salvation Army' Sallie House and the Children's Village, said the children and teens who attended ranged from age 1 to 17 and that the children seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

Children created colorful sand paintings.

"We have volunteers who come to us," Harris said, "but it's not often that the children are invited to a college."

Harris noted that, particularly for older students, activities such as the visit to Eckerd can help them see new possibilities for their own futures.

"We are always in favor of keeping the kids busy, getting them out of the [shelter] houses, stopping negative patterns of behavior, and teaching them the importance of getting an education," Harris said. 

The event, sponsored by the Program for Experienced Learners and the Offices of Service Learning and Campus Activities, was spearheaded by PEL alumna Lisa Alchin ’14, with support from PEL Marketing Coordinator Donna Littell ’75. Alchin first began her relationship with Sallie House while searching for internship opportunities in Professor Haukur Matthiasson’s human development course.

“I wanted to immerse myself in the day-to-day lives of the children and the staff in the crisis shelter in order to deepen my understanding of their experiences and needs," Alchin said. "I also wanted to understand the organization with a ‘macro’ view—from counseling to politics to processes—every aspect.”

With a fellow student’s help, Alchin connected with Harris and developed an internship that allowed her to work closely with Harris in performing administrative duties. The internship exposed her to multiple facets of serving children in crisis.

Beyond this work, Alchin’s personal and professional interest in the field of child services continued to grow. “The internships left me wanting more,” she explained. “I knew then that I wanted to be a leader in the field of child services.” After graduation, Alchin continued her work with Sallie House as a volunteer, and she currently is pursuing a master's degree in Leadership in Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health at the University of South Florida.

Organizing the Fun Day event allowed Alchin to share her passion with a larger community, build upon her expertise, and create a positive experience in the lives of the young visitors.

“The volunteers were amazing and the children could feel that the people at Eckerd that day cared about them. The activities were the vehicle for meaningful and caring interactions with the volunteers and the children all day,” she said.

Left: An Eckerd student (r) shows a child some of the wonders of the sea at the Galbraith Marine 
Science Lab as part of the Fun Day event in November.

It wasn't just the children who benefitted, according to Jenna Behnke '15, AmeriCorps VISTA intern in the Office of Service Learning.

"The event brought multiple generations together for a day of fun and conversation," Behnke said.

Littell agreed, adding that PEL students and residential students don't often have the opportunity to work together on a community project.

"It was gratifying to watch so many different groups across campus come together for the children," she said.

Overall, Alchin felt the event was a great success, with participants from across the Eckerd community working together for the benefit of wonderful group of children, making the all important connection between the lessons learned in the classroom and the communities in which we live and work. Volunteers left with a clearer sense of the important work that Sallie House does for some of the most vulnerable members of our community, and the children left, as Alchin noted, with a broader sense of perspective about what the next chapters of their lives might hold. “Knowing that they are welcome [at Eckerd],” she noted, “could change their education trajectory in a positive way.”

The Sallie House Fun Day was one of several events organized by the PEL Alumni Advisory Committee, a group of alumni dedicated to engaging the alumni community and raising awareness of PEL in the broader Tampa Bay community. For more information about this group, please contact Donna Littell (litteldj@eckerd.edu) or visit the PEL Alumni Services page.