Giving back to the community that supported them.
The Elon Year of Service Graduate Fellows program is a partnership between Elon University and several organizations in Alamance County, which offers six recent Elon graduates the opportunity to engage in one year of meaningful service work to improve the health, education and economic well-being of residents in Alamance County.
Lallo Yadeta is one of this year’s Data Fellows, and she has spent her time with Alamance Achieves, one of the program’s six supported agencies. Others are Alamance County Health Department; Alamance Regional Medical Center; Economic Development, City of Burlington; Healthy Alamance and Impact Alamance. Lallo has been focused on several projects including visualizing the raw data the school system and other partners have given Alamance Achieves, facilitating the data team and providing data to help contextualize Alamance Achieve’s Community Voice Project. “Additionally, Sylvia Ellington and I have formed a Racial Equity Team where we hope to convene equity practitioners in the county to discuss best practices,” she said.
During the year, fellows receive a plethora of support from Elon University, including access to the Student Professional Development Center, personalized training from Elon’s Center for Leadership, graduate school information sessions and access to faculty/staff liaisons.
Lallo feels the program is a great opportunity for the students who are involved. “Most importantly, it’s a great way for the university to connect with Alamance County,” she shared. “The fellowship allows students who were a part of this community for four years to give back and make actionable and meaningful change.”
Lallo was a double major at Elon University, receiving a degree in Public Health and International & Global Studies with a minor in Political Science. After her year as a Fellow ends, she plans to pursue a master’s in public health.
While COVID-19 did not affect the size or recruitment of this year’s group of fellows, it did change the level of daily collaboration amongst members of the cohort. Adapting has been a challenge, but all the fellows have risen to the occasion and continued to find ways to best serve the community and make the fellowship an enriching experience.
