August 17, 2023- During Millikin’s Welcome Week, first-year students and Student Experience ambassadors took part in Millikin’s annual Day of Service, visiting various locations in Decatur to complete service projects.
The event is meant to aid in bringing the community and Millikin University closer together, and help Millikin freshmen get a feel for the community they will be spending their next four years in.
“It is a great way for them to get their foot in the community,” Mackenzie Mann, Student Experience Ambassador said. “It’s great to see the people you will be seeing around town, and seeing the places that help support Millikin and the students like them.”
Community service locations included Northeast Community Fund, Good Samaritan Inn’s Mercy Gardens, God’s Shelter of Love, Salvation Army, Block by Block, and many more.
In an effort to build a stronger relationship with Millikin University, ADM employees chose to take part in the community service projects, alongside Millikin freshmen.
“We wanted to partner with the students so they could see that you can have a career here in the community but also to give back to the community that we are all learning and working in,” Jalynn Harris, Customer Support Supervisor said.
Harris is hopeful that this will serve as a reminder to Decatur that ADM truly does care about the community and wants to help.
“We like to remind the community that we do care and try to get out in the community and volunteer as much as possible,” Harris said.
By working with one another, students and ADM employees are getting a chance to get to know each other, and students are learning about what ADM does and the ways in which the company gives back to the community.
“Let’s get the students out into ADM and we can get them out in the community, and we can show what ADM does and who ADM is,” Brandon Rick, Transportation Work Stream Lead at ADM said. “Opportunities to talk about why Decatur is an important place to live and work.
The Day of Service event concluded with a luncheon at Fairview Park where Millikin and ADM volunteers met to reflect on the day, and talk about what the future partnership could look like.
