Alumnus Clay Jones and his wife Debbie made a $5 million gift to the center a year ago. Now, the center has new programs, staff, and space.
Education, engagement, leadership, and service have long been the core mission of the Jones Center for Leadership and Service. However, a landmark $5 million gift one year ago from alumnus Clay Jones and his wife Debbie forever changed the capacity of the center to carry out that mission.
The Jones Center now has new programs, staff, and space in the recently completed second phase of the Student Union. Its flagship programs such as Leadership Knoxville Scholars, VOLbreaks, Ignite, Emerging Leaders, and the Clifton M. Jones Student Leadership Conference are reaching more students and community partners than ever before.
Last year, the center engaged about 2,862 individual students, interacting with them a total of 11,442 times. Some 5,686 students tracked more than 150,000 hours of service, and 498 community partners were matched with students who helped meet their nonprofit needs.
Getting involved helped me realize what being a Vol means. It means more than being on campus but being involved with all of Knoxville and rooted to our place and home.
—Denee Stewart Freeman, Jones Center Ambassador
Sophomore, English and Psychology Major from Nashville
Giving Freely of Oneself
A visit to the Jones Center reveals a dynamic and energetic environment where students—many of whom are Jones Center ambassadors, VOLbreak Leaders, or Ignite student directors—plan leadership and service opportunities throughout Knoxville and the country.
In the center’s updated and welcoming space, students meet throughout the day and enjoy the sense of community that arises from helping others.
Mandie Beeler, director of the Jones Center, works every day with the center’s student–leaders and participants. She has found them to be very passionate about making a positive impact on the world, the communities they live in, and UT.
“Volunteering, at its heart, is giving of oneself freely to benefit others,” Beeler said. “Our students are so creative and knowledgeable, and they have great ideas and skills to make our community better in ways they care deeply about. That’s where the real change happens.”
When the students involved with the Jones Center go into the field and help others, they wrap up their experiences with reflection to discuss what they’ve learned through their service. This helps them become active and engaged citizens because they exchange experiences and viewpoints. Ultimately, doing good is a team exercise.
“We are in a unique position to help our campus community realize that we are all in this together,” Beeler said. “If we want to make the world better, then we have to do it together. We need to collaborate and build coalitions that have the capacity to do good work.”
It’s always important to give back to your community—especially the community around you. People need to know we’re there for them because we don’t want anyone to feel like they’re alone during tough situations.
– Tammie Washington, Jones Center Ambassador Junior, Kinesiology Major from Memphis
A Legacy of Service
The Jones Center has a long history of bringing together students and service opportunities. Its oldest program, VOLbreaks, has existed for 26 years and continues to grow.
A staff of six employees and four graduate teaching assistants, many of whom have joined since the Joneses’ transformative gift, work to connect students with meaningful service and facilitate leadership opportunities.
The center now has more impact on students and the communities they serve than ever before.
“One great example of what we’re capable of was this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service,” Beeler said. “More than 400 faculty, staff, and student volunteers worked on 22 different sites, which was the largest turnout in the history of the program.”
A key component of the center’s work in organizing service consists of matching students to appropriate opportunities, Beeler added.
The cold weather of the January MLK Day of Service, for instance, meant little work could be done on the community farms that the Jones Center partners with. Farming resumes in the spring, but in January, organizations like Remote Area Medical, Keep Knoxville Beautiful, and the Beck Cultural Exchange Center were in need of student volunteers.
“It’s really about making sure that we meet the needs our community partners have identified,” Beeler said. “The reciprocal nature of being a good partner is about listening to what the community needs, and this creates stronger communities overall.”
Investing in Leadership
Student–leaders at the Jones Center are encouraged to apply their efforts to a societal need they feel passionate about.
In the case of the VOLbreaks Alternative Break program, which once was known as Team Vols, about 40 student–leaders organize service trips with 10 to 12 students each during fall, winter, and spring breaks.
They propose a city within driving distance and a nonprofit there to work with, receive training, and then lead a group of students on the trip. Accompanied by a staff member or graduate student, the groups lodge in community spaces or houses of worship, cook their own meals, and volunteer their time and talent to help the chosen nonprofit.
“We want students to think about needs that exist in our society and what can be done about them,” said María Martínez, a staff coordinator of the VOLbreaks program. “These trips are built from top to bottom based on students’ areas of passion, and we get to see what students care about in the world and help them create incredible experiences while becoming connected to the world.”
An endowment established by Stephen and Rachel Kennedy (’97, ’00) in 2015 provides scholarships for the VOLbreaks program. These cover travel costs for students who would otherwise face financial barriers.
In the local community, Leadership Knoxville Scholars helps UT’s best and brightest students engage in civics through connections with impactful leaders. The program receives funds from Leadership Knoxville, a local nonprofit organization.
“This really is a unique program because it opens doors for students and helps them get out of the campus bubble to see how Knoxville really works,” said Laura Ketola, assistant director of the Jones Center. “It’s a leadership program that invests in students but also a retention program that helps make sure Knoxville keeps the great leaders we create here at UT.”
For Ketola, the gifts made by the Jones and Kennedy families, as well as annual gifts they receive, provide a great example to students because they show how powerful giving back can be.
“We want to keep growing our programs so every student feels they leave campus as a leader,” Ketola said. “Really that couldn’t happen without gifts like the ones we received from Clay and Debbie and Stephen and Rachel.”
Empathy as a Skill
Beeler sees the center’s work as a vital part of higher education today. A cultural shift has taken place, and students of this generation want to be servant leaders in areas they feel passionate about.
“Service is a great way for people who may be very different to find common ground,” she said. “For this generation, being a community leader and active citizen is part of who they are.”
That requires empathy with the struggle others face, and students who pass through the Jones Center are well positioned to take this skill into their lives and careers after graduation. Employers are increasingly encouraging service as part of work–life balance, Beeler said.
She pointed out, though, that none of it would be possible without private support.
“The volunteering itself may be free, but facilitating these programs is not,” Beeler said. “We are extremely grateful because this supports everything from renting vans and transporting students to service sites, to scholarships that allow incoming students to attend Ignite, to serving breakfast on the morning of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service.”
