Feature Student: Lindsey Holbrook

Hi, I’m Lindsey Holbrook. I am a senior at UNC from Wake Forest, NC and am double majoring in English and Exercise Science. In my free time, I enjoy running, baking, hiking, and taking road trips with friends. UNC has a lot of opportunities to do service and I currently teach swim lessons with Carolina Swim Clinic, an organization that offers free swim lessons to community members in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area. Also, I teach a short fitness class to UNC Facility Service Staff members twice a week through an initiative powered by the school of Public Health to increase workplace wellness. With that said, I have done most of my service at Carolina through a service-learning organization called APPLES. My first-year at UNC, I went on an Alternative Spring Break through APPLES to Robeson County, NC to learn more about Rural Communities and the best way to serve these areas. I led that same trip my sophomore year, and spent my Junior year being the APPLES Alternative Spring Break Co-Chair overseeing the successful planning and implementation of each trip. I currently serve as the president of APPLES Service-Learning and this has allowed me to help organize and facilitate meaningful service-learning opportunities throughout campus through APPLES Service-Learning Courses, Internships, Social Innovation Fellowships, and Alternative Breaks.

I decided to apply to this class because Philanthropy is a service component that I really did not know much about. Throughout my service experiences, I have greatly benefitted from philanthropic ventures, but I have never been able to see how that process works or learn how to do it well. I have really enjoyed this class because it has given me an inside look into that process and I feel like I learn something from each class discussion. I am on the Community Committee, and in this position I compile a list of organizations that fit our grant’s focus, send them our request for proposals, and correspond with them throughout the process. This position has allowed me to have the privilege to connect with and learn more about organizations that do such great work. I am really excited to start hearing back from different organizations and learning about the different projects they are pursuing!