HC IMPACT Week of Service is a summer opportunity for approximately 60 incoming first-year students to engage in their new community through service with various organizations.
The Honors College and Academic Scholars Program participants also engage in educational workshops, reflections, and team-building activities. They learn about social inequities and inequalities in areas such as poverty, health, education, and environment.
This year’s primary sponsor, MSU Federal Credit Union, made an even greater impact possible.
Take a look at the stories behind a few of the changemakers within the program.
Community engagement in a generation of change
“This generation is in a moment of such amazing change, but also opportunity. I think this is a generation that is going to face problems unlike we’ve ever seen before – locally and globally. So to have an opportunity to see the people that are going to be the leaders that drive change in the future is just a remarkable opportunity.
“Community engagement is really essential because it provides you the opportunity to learn about other perspectives beyond your own. It’s through the community that you’ll really begin to understand both how systems work and how individuals experience those systems. It helps you broaden your own perspectives, and it helps center the work on the lived experiences of other people.”
—Neil Steinkamp, Systems Change Consultant
Steinkamp (’99) graduated from MSU as a member of the Honors College. He returned to campus to give a presentation to HC IMPACT participants.
Work together and lift each other up
“It is about supporting other existing garden and urban farming projects around here, because it really is just a matter of labor and attention and coordination. It’s hard. It’s hard, and nobody has freaking time. A lot of people want to get started gardening and they get plots here, and it is way too much space for one person, you know? And it’s the ultimate goal of a garden project to really foster a little bit more community and education about how to, you know, grow together.
“I’m really excited and happy to be kind of part of this community and growing together to be more resilient and supportive of each other. Because it’s tough out there, you know? It’s really freaking tough.”
—Kit Ferran, Paradise Community Garden Coordinator
Ferran, a Lansing resident, led a group of HC IMPACT participants through service projects at the Paradise Community Garden.
Challenge is where growth happens
“Challenge is where the growth happens. Hearing the next generation of students/participants and their ideas and how it challenges or maybe reinforms your own ideas – you can grow from that.
“I feel like, for me, it was my time as a participant where I really found a lot of joy within the program. It made my first month here so much less scary because I knew so many more people – not just people in my grade, but also the staff and the mentors within this program. I feel like it really allowed my transition into school to be much easier. And so, I wanted to provide that for other students as well by being a mentor.”
—Maggie Broderick, Mentor
Broderick is a third-years Honors College student who first participated in HC IMPACT in 2023 as an incoming Spartan. She returned to the program as a student leader and mentor.
Giving back with new perspectives
“The poverty simulator shows a bunch of different families, and each of them have their own struggles. Like, let’s say there’s a family with children that have disabilities or another family that doesn’t have a car. So, it just gives you a better perspective of how many things people have to think about at the same time and they have to balance and there’s just always things you have to pay for that you don’t really take into consideration.
“It’s a way to help people think about issues that they don’t have in their regular lives or issues that other people are encountering.”
—Anas Shaaban, Poverty Simulator Volunteer
Shaaban is a fourth-year Honors College student. He joined HC IMPACT in 2022 as an incoming Spartan and returned as a volunteer for the poverty simulator.
Understanding our impact
“I’m from Austin, Texas, so I don’t know what Michigan is like at all. So, being in this community and finding organizations like this, and also meeting a lot of our professors and deans and people who have really good resources helps a lot.
“My favorite part of the program is being really engaged with community – not just like going out there and doing service just for the hours, but truly meeting people in the community and meeting the people who lead these organizations and learning more about what our work is actually doing. And that has changed my mind a lot about our place in the world and what we can do as college students.”
—Abby Aardema, Participant
Aardema is a first-year Honors student and Alumni Distinguished Scholar. HC IMPACT gave her an early introduction to campus and the Greater Lansing community.