N.C. A&T Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement Hosts Aggies Day of Service

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Nov. 20, 2023) – North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University’s Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement (OLCE) successfully hosted its third annual Aggies Day of Service to open the university’s 97^th homecoming celebration.

This year, hundreds of students and three N.C. A&T student organizations – Exceptional Men in Business (EMB), Aggie Men and Renaissance Men – came together to serve the East Greensboro community and community partners, including A Simple Gesture (partnered with the organization S.A.F.E. and its founder Maya Williams), Bennett College, Cone Health, Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Girls Like Me Greensboro Parks and Recreation, Greensboro Beautiful, Interactive Resource Center (partnered with the organization Active Minds and its founder Williams), Mentoring for Her, OLCE’s “Cross the Street” Program and Prince of Peace Lutheran Community Garden.

The event, which is typically scheduled for the second weekend in September after Labor Day, almost did not occur this year.

“However, students kept asking about it and the senior class approached me and asked if we could make it happen,” said LeKeshia Franklin, civic and service-learning program coordinator for the Office of Leadership and Civic Engagement.

“Ms. LeKeshia and I decided to place Aggies Day of Service on Oct. 28 to kick off homecoming with service,” said senior class president Brandon Daye, who led this year’s effort with Franklin. “This event aided the university mission statement by preparing our students to advance the human condition and facilitate economic growth.”

That commitment to service extended to 20 of Aggies’ peers at nearby Bennett College who had been displaced by a recent dorm fire.

“There was no way we could be their neighbor and not support the Belles,” said Franklin.

Daye, of Burlington, North Carolina, is studying supply chain management and agribusiness and food industry management, in addition to earning certificates in business analytics, waste management, and entrepreneurship and innovation. He said it is important to demonstrate the “Aggies Do” concept beyond the classroom.

“The third Annual Aggies Day of Service was such a joyful and intentional event,” said Daye. “We had over 350 student volunteers and conducted six community service projects from East to West Greensboro.”

 “‘Aggies Do …. Service’ is an important factor for students as they matriculate through the university in their mission to become agents of change,’” said Franklin. “This only happens with a spirit of servitude and actions of service which our students have. 

“Aggies Day of Service, in its third year, has grown tremendously in those we serve and the students that show up for more than just service hours but to make a difference in the East Greensboro community.”