Current Scholars
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Kelsey Hagen
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Kelsey came to Vanderbilt with a desire to not only serve, but to connect with the Nashville community. Over the course of her freshman year, Kelsey used her experience with horses to volunteer at Saddle Up!, a center that offers riding lessons to children with mental and physical disabilities. She served as a side walker and a leader for multiple lessons per week. She found the experience so rewarding that she spent her spring break in Talladega, Alabama, at a similar program that offered horseback riding lessons to the students of the Alabama schools for the blind and deaf through Alternative Spring Break. During that time, she also volunteered her time to a mentoring and tutoring program at Maplewood High School where she taught basic level algebra to struggling high school students.
Upon her return for her sophomore year, Kelsey dedicated herself to broadening her view of service and need to a global level. She became involved with the Global Poverty Initiative, a programming committee dedicated to bringing global awareness to the campus, as their secretary. In addition, Kelsey served as the group liaison for a Vanderbilt Interest Project, called Spontaneous Acts of Love, which aimed to serve the students of Vanderbilt University and the surrounding communities. In addition to being active on campus, the group rallied students on multiple occasions to serve with the Nashville homeless community alongside the Nashville Salvation Army. In the spring, Kelsey decided to put her language skills to the test by joining Manna International for her spring break. She served at an orphanage in La Ceiba, Honduras. The team helped the children with their homework, took them to a soccer game, and furthered a construction effort for the school nearby. Kelsey also regularly serves at the Ronald McDonald House in Nashville with her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi.
It was also during her sophomore year that Kelsey found a passion for anti-human trafficking movements. As she researched, she was struck by how little people actually knew about trafficking and set out for the summer to work with the A21 Campaign, an international, anti-trafficking, non-profit. Kelsey is helping this non-profit to improve their student programs and writing a comprehensive leadership training manual to help equip students with knowledge and empower them to use their gifts and talents to fight human trafficking where they are.
Kelsey looks forward to continuing her work with Manna Project International and serving with the growing homeless population of Nashville alongside the Nashville Salvation Army. She also hopes to continue her work with anti-trafficking movements and spread awareness and hope to the community.
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