Kevin Yang, the newest employee at the Wesley Center is a not-so-new face on campus. Yang, an alumnus from the class of 2014, was hired as the Coordinator of Civic Engagement and the Hamline to Hamline Collaboration this semester. Returning to Hamline after graduating in 2014.

“I think a big part of me was hungry to be in a higher education environment,” Yang said.

Yang’s new positions entail working with students at Hamline University, as well as reaching out to the community in order to find opportunities for campus organizations.

“A really big part of my job is to connect the dots,” Yang said. “The way that I am trying to envision my year is to really connect with all student organizations who do service of some kind, even if it is not directly telling them what to do, but making sure I have connections.”

Not only does he want to reach out to campus organizations individually, but also connecting the organizations to one another.

“One thing I have noticed a lot is that almost all student organizations on campus do service of some kind, and it is really thinking about how to get them speaking to each other, or getting their work to speak to each other in really cool ways to understand that the service that their doing doesn’t have to exist in isolation, that it can speak to a larger narrative of service that is happening at Hamline,” Yang said.

Yang also expressed interest in getting to know student organizations.

“What I am trying to do is develop really strong relationships with student groups and also really strong relationships with the community around it,” Yang said.

Yang tells a story of when he felt he was able to make a strong connection with student athletes on campus and expressed his eagerness to further grow that relationship.

“I know that service is an important part of what all of the teams already do,” Yang said.

Yang explained that there are a lot of organizations that historically have had a relationship with the Wesley Center and the University. His goal is to keep those connections strong. One strategy he wants to pursue to make this possible is using technology.  Yang said that one thing that keeps a connection strong is “tracking.” This means making sure organizations and teams get the full credit for their work, as well as giving the community organizations a chance to put their information down.

For more information on how to get involved pop into the Engagement and the Hamline to Hamline Collaboration office, which can be found in the Wesley Center on the Third Floor of Anderson.