Our 2024-2025 OSL-ebration
As I reflect on the past year, I am so proud to highlight the achievements of our small yet mighty team in the Office of Service-Learning.
Campus Kitchen hit a huge milestone as it surpassed half a million pounds of food (reaching nearly 600,000 pounds) rescued from partner grocery stores, UGArden, and other organizations. Experience UGA was led by our largest number of student ambassadors to date - 53 ambassadors - which demonstrates the commitment of UGA students to K-12 students in our community. We also celebrated the second year of Coaching4Success, our newest program that connects UGA student mentors to Clarke County student athletes, inspiring the next generation of learners to be leaders and communicators in the classroom and on the field.
We celebrated a milestone with our 20th cohort of the Service-Learning Fellows program this year. This program has now helped more than 180 faculty members design impactful service-learning courses across every school and college across UGA. UGA currently offers more than 520 service-learning courses, each course providing students with valuable hands-on experiences working with organizations in our community, which in turn benefit from students' support, research and insight.
Our office was equal parts happy and sad to celebrate Dr. Paul Matthews' retirement. Paul has served as associate director since 2010 and has been instrumental in the continued success of so many programs, including the Service-Learning Fellows Program, our workshop series, and our grant programs that help faculty members provide so many lasting experiences for their students. Congratulations, Paul!
I hope you enjoy reading about our highlights from the year. We couldn't possibly fit everything into this report, so I encourage you to explore our website at servicelearning.uga.edu to catch up on all our latest news in the office.
Shannon Brooks - Director of the Office of Service-Learning
Shannon Brooks - Director of the Office of Service-Learning
By the Numbers
Highlights from the year
During 2024-25, over 8,500 students enrolled in 516 service-learning course sections, providing about 377,000 hours of direct service and project-based activities responding to community needs.
Last year, 20 additional courses sought approval to receive the S suffix or SERV attribute through UGA's curriculum approval process.
The Office of Service-Learning celebrated its 20th cohort of the Service-Learning Fellows Program with 10 participating University of Georgia faculty members.
More than 180 faculty from 16 of UGA’s schools and colleges, Public Service and Outreach units, and the UGA-AU Medical Partnership have participated in the program since it was established in 2006.
The Office of Service-Learning launched its second year of Coaching4Success, a partnership program with the Clarke County School District (CCSD) that expands access to youth sports while simultaneously enhancing academic and social-emotional learning for fourth and fifth graders.
In 2024-25, 81 UGA students volunteered at five elementary schools, engaging with 152 CCSD students involved in after-school sports via a social-emotional skills-based curriculum.
UGA’s AmeriCorps programs, the AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps Community Food Fellows programs, both had a wide-reaching impact throughout the community last year.
The 2024-25 cohort of Community Food Fellows provided almost 10,000 hours of service to community, taking both supporting and leadership roles within local partner organizations.
The VISTAs supported 985 campus and community volunteers who provided over 3,800 hours of service to their placement organizations, which the VISTAs also helped raise $55,000 in cash and in-kind contributions for the year.
During the 2024-2025 academic year, Campus Kitchen recovered more than 46,000 pounds of food and created 11,500 meals and 2,250 grocery bags for families facing food insecurity in Athens.
Campus Kitchen was also recognized at the opening of the new Kroger on College Station and awarded with a $5,000 donation to support Zero Hunger, Zero Waste efforts in the Athens community.
This year, Experience UGA hosted 90 field trips for more than 9,000 local students from the Clarke County School District.
The largest cohort of 53 Experience UGA Ambassadors contributed nearly 5,200 volunteer hours while helping coordinate and lead these field trips from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Campus Kitchen
News and Highlights
The Campus Kitchen at UGA is the student-powered hunger relief program of the UGA Office of Service-Learning. Campus Kitchen spotlights sustainable solutions to hunger and food waste and showcases a mutually beneficial university-community partnership. The program engages UGA students and faculty to help develop sustainable solutions to food waste and hunger. Since 2012, Campus Kitchen has served more than 133,000 meals and recovered more than 575,000 pounds of food.
During the 2024-25 academic year, Campus Kitchen recovered more than 46,000 pounds of food and created 11,500 meals and 2,250 grocery bags for families facing food insecurity in Athens. Campus Kitchen was also recognized at the opening of the new Kroger on College Station and awarded with a $5,000 donation to support Zero Hunger, Zero Waste efforts in the Athens community.
This past year, Campus Kitchen continued to build new partnerships with and learn from organizations around Athens. During the spring semester, Campus Kitchen's student leadership team participated in a community speaker series where they learned from different community members who are working in nonprofits around Athens.
Campus Kitchen students also partnered with Envision Athens to help establish a community garden at Advantage Behavioral Health System's Homeless Day Service Center.
Turkeypalooza, the Thanksgiving event organized by Campus Kitchen and the Athens Community Council on Aging (ACCA), celebrated its 12th anniversary in 2024. Volunteers collected donated food to prepare cooked Thanksgiving meals and fresh groceries for approximately 1,600 individuals in Athens-Clarke County. This included 333 packaged bags and 190 cooked and plated meals.
Since 2015, Campus Kitchen and ACCA have collected more than 33,500 donated Thanksgiving food items, packed nearly 2,000 grocery bags full of Thanksgiving meal ingredients, and prepared more than 1,200 cooked meals for members of the community.
Last year's Turkeypalooza was featured in UGA Today:
Dishing Out Acts of Service
At this year’s International Town and Gown Association (ITGA) conference, the Athens Community Council on Aging (ACCA) was honored with the 2025 Presidential Excellence Award, highlighting the organization’s multifaceted collaboration with the University of Georgia and dedication to supporting thousands of seniors in Athens and beyond.
Enjoy the video below to learn more about ACCA and how the OSL and UGA have worked together to promote numerous wellness programs and activities that support, engage and advocate for seniors.
Coaching4
Success
News and Highlights
Coaching4Success is a partnership program between the University of Georgia and the Clarke County School District (CCSD) that strives to expand access to youth sports while simultaneously enhancing academic and social-emotional learning for fourth and fifth graders. Each week, a dedicated team of UGA student volunteers visits local elementary schools, bringing excitement and encouragement through mentorship. These sessions are about fostering a love for learning and building the social-emotional skills that are essential for long-term success.
In 2024-25, 81 UGA students volunteered at five elementary schools across more than 50 sessions, engaging with 152 CCSD students involved in after-school sports via a social-emotional skills-based curriculum.
In Spring 2025, CCSD students reflected on their experience with the program. 97% said that the sessions were fun, 92% said they enjoyed the activities and games, and 85% said they learned something new.
Coaching4Success will expand to eight CCSD elementary schools in Fall 2025.
Experience UGA
News and Highlights
Experience UGA is a partnership program between the University of Georgia and the Clarke County School District (CCSD) that strives to bring every student in the district to UGA’s campus for an educational field trip every year. This takes place in the form of educational field trips occurring at every grade level to various locations across UGA’s campus. Each trip seeks to connect to the standards being taught at the grade level that is visiting.
Last year, Experience UGA hosted 90 field trips for more than 9,000 local students from the Clarke County School District. Experience UGA’s ambassador program contributed nearly 5,200 volunteer hours coordinating these trips, engaging with hundreds of UGA student volunteers throughout the year.
Last year, Experience UGA welcomed the largest cohort of 53 Experience UGA Ambassadors - almost a 50% increase in size over the previous year's cohort. During the 2024-25 school year, Experience UGA also established a four-year cohort leadership model to provide returning ambassadors additional guidance in professional development and leadership identity development.
The Experience UGA team was delighted to receive the 2024 ITGA Presidential Excellence Award as well as the 2024 UGA Public Service and Outreach Vice President’s Award of Excellence for Overall Team.
Aiyana Egins, Experience UGA Coordinator, was recently featured in UGA Today. Learn about Aiyana's background and her experience leading this incredible program over the past four years.
Experience UGA coordinator connects Athens community with university
Celebrating AmeriCorps
The AmeriCorps Community Food Fellows (CFF) program was sunset in 2025 after two years of service in the Athens-Clarke County community. From 2023-25, CFF supported two year-long cohorts of about 20 members, who each provided up to 900 hours of service with on-campus and off-campus partner organizations focused on food insecurity, food production, and food waste. The CFF program included members from outside of UGA’s undergraduate student body, bringing in community members and graduate students.
Over 24 local organizations hosted the food fellows for service opportunities, including garden planting and harvesting, food recovery, meal preparation/delivery, and community education/outreach, allowing participants to directly combat food insecurity and food waste in the Athens area.
Last year, the Community Food Fellows provided almost 10,000 hours of service in the community, taking both supporting and leadership roles within local partner organizations. AmeriCorps Community Food Fellows prepared and served more than 27,000 meals and rescued more than 9,000 pounds of food from landfills.
The UGA AmeriCorps VISTA Network was established by the Office of Service-Learning in 2013 to support local community and campus organizations with AmeriCorps VISTA members, in order to increase their capacity for fighting poverty in the Athens area.
During its first grant period of 2013 to 2024, UGA’s program placed over 120 VISTA members with local and on-campus organizations focused on K-12 education, environmental issues, community health, food production and distribution, and other community needs.
UGA received a new AmeriCorps grant in 2024 to continue this initiative; during 2024-25, six VISTAs served in programs specifically supporting anti-hunger and food security, food recovery, and food production initiatives.
Last year, the AmeriCorps VISTAs supported programs that served over 2,600 meals and provided over 512,000 pounds of food to clients and affiliated organizations.
The VISTAs also supported 985 campus and community volunteers who provided over 3,800 hours of service to their placement organizations, which the VISTAs also helped raise $55,000 in cash and in-kind contributions for the year.
In the News
Preserving the Herd
Cameron Berglund, lecturer with the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design, takes a wild approach to inspire and challenge his students.
Students in Berglund’s Region Site Place Design Studio, LAND 4050S, are all in their third year of UGA’s Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) program. Although they enter the class with a few years of design experience, Berglund encourages his students to think bigger.
For their semester-long project, students must design a 2,000-acre ranch, incorporating research and service-learning experiences, to support an American icon–the wild mustang.
Service-Learning in Action at East Jackson
With support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the University of Georgia’s Office of Service-Learning and East Jackson Comprehensive High School are growing their partnership to introduce service-learning to a younger generation.
In fall 2024, the Office of Service-Learning received a $240,000 grant from the USDA to expand service-learning opportunities at East Jackson. The grant will support interdisciplinary, project-based learning centered around reducing food insecurity in Jackson County. UGA will help develop service-learning classes connected to high school curriculum which utilize school gardens and greenhouses, incorporate agricultural partnerships and address real-world challenges.
Experience UGA connects classrooms to campus
Zaya Roberson remembers visiting UGArden as a seventh grader in the Clarke County School District.
On that Experience UGA field trip, she and her classmates tasted spicy peppers and made smoothies from the lush produce all while learning what the University of Georgia has to offer. Now, as a second-year student at UGA and an ambassador for Experience UGA, she’s helping to facilitate those same field trips for Clarke County students.
“It’s in our backyard,” said Roberson, who is majoring in human development and family science in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “UGA is achievable. Those students could be exactly where I am today. That’s why I wanted to be part of the program — to let students know that UGA is not out of their reach.”
Thank you for reading!
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