Rise Against Hunger event introduces Class of 2030 to Presbyterian College’s longstanding commitment to serving others
Before they attended their first college classes, Presbyterian College’s newest students spent part of their orientation experience serving people they may never meet.
Members of the Class of 2030 and transfer students joined volunteers from First Presbyterian Church of Clinton on Sunday, Aug. 23, to package 25,000 meals through Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief organization.
The annual community service event is sponsored by First Presbyterian Church and is usually held at the church. In recent years, participation by PC’s newest students has become a tradition and part of New Student Orientation, giving them an early introduction to one of the college’s defining values.
This year’s event was held in PC’s Mabry-Smith-Yonce Center, but the purpose remained the same: bringing the church, college and community together in service.
The Rev. Andy Chambers, pastor of First Presbyterian Church, welcomed the students and volunteers by pointing to the deep historic connection between the church and college. PC founder the Rev. William Plumer Jacobs also served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church, which is often referred to as the college’s “mother church.”
Chambers, who became pastor of First Presbyterian Church earlier this year, said he has spent his first months learning more about that shared history and the commitment to service that continues to connect the two institutions.
“We do our best to try to live into that connection and really live into the DNA of service,” Chambers told the students. “I know that’s a big part of who PC is and what PC is all about.”
He then gave the students a glimpse of the task ahead.
“I think we’re here to pack 25,000 meals, which is mind-boggling to me,” Chambers said.
Service as a First College Experience
For Jessie Allmond of Laurens, a graduate of Thornwell Charter School, the service project was an opportunity to begin college by helping others alongside her new classmates.
Allmond, who plans to study biology on a pre-med track and hopes to pursue forensic medicine, said service was not initially one of the main factors she considered in choosing a college. But she said helping people is important to her, making the Rise Against Hunger project a meaningful way to begin her PC experience.
For Tierra Coley of Georgetown, service played a more direct role in her decision to attend PC.
Coley said she originally planned to attend Penn State but ultimately decided she wanted a college that felt more like home — and one where volunteering and fundraising were a normal part of campus life.
“I knew that I wanted to go to a school where fundraising was a normal thing,” Coley said.
A friend who attends PC told her about the college’s emphasis on fundraising and volunteer work.
“I was like, I want to be a part of that, because I do want to be a nurse, so I feel like community service is important,” she said.
Elijah Grant of Clinton, a graduate of Laurens District High School and a member of the Blue Hose baseball program, said PC had long been familiar to him.
“I’ve always come here as a kid, and once I grew up, I was like, yeah, I want to go to PC,” Grant said.
He said participating in a large service project before classes begin provides freshmen with an immediate way to become involved and meet one another.
“It gets you involved with the community and everything,” Grant said. “It’s a good way to be a freshman on campus and get to know everybody.”
He added that students also have the opportunity to “help other people around the world.”
Trent Pavlus of the Jacksonville, Florida, area said PC’s emphasis on service was visible to him before he arrived on campus.
“They make a big point of it on social media,” said Pavlus, a member of the football team.
He said that emphasis gave him greater confidence in his decision to attend PC.
“Getting to connect with the community is very important,” Pavlus said. “The community is part of the school just as much as we are part of it.”
This is what I think is the great thing about Presbyterian College — PC students show up for something like this. That doesn’t happen at every college.”
Dr. Ron Zimmerman, former Professor of Biology, member of First Presbyterian Church of Clinton
Learning What PC Values
For leaders of PC’s Student Volunteer Services, the event is about more than the number of meals packed.
Abbie Donaldson ’27, SVS co-director, said bringing new students together for service allows them to meet classmates while also learning something fundamental about the college they have joined.
“They’re also learning the very basic values of Presbyterian College, which is rooted in service,” Donaldson said.
Donaldson remembers participating in the event as a freshman herself.
“It reminded me how important service was,” she said, “and it also allowed me to kind of meet new people and bond together as we went through this together.”
Fellow SVS co-director Becca King ’27 said PC’s commitment to service was part of what attracted her to the college.
“It is a reason, it’s something that drew me to PC,” King said. “And I think that it is really gratifying to be here and to be a part of something so big.”
The Rev. Dr. British Hyrams, PC’s Jack and Jane Presseau associate chaplain, said putting students into service before their first class helps turn the college’s values into action.
Hyrams described it as “walking the walk and talking the talk,” giving students an immediate opportunity to understand service not simply as something PC talks about but something members of the college community are expected to practice.
“If they don’t know the PC model, I tell them what it is,” Hyrams said. “So then they can make that connection when they come here.”
A Church Tradition Embraced by PC Students
The Rise Against Hunger event began as a First Presbyterian Church community service project and has evolved over roughly a decade.
Dr. Ron Zimmerman, a former PC biology professor and member of First Presbyterian Church, said the event initially involved church members and other community volunteers. Over time, PC students began participating, and the event was eventually incorporated into the service component of orientation for incoming students.
Zimmerman said the event has grown to the point that volunteers now pack 25,000 meals in two shifts so as many students as possible can participate.
He recalled one earlier year when organizers planned to pack 15,000 meals and expected they would need about 120 volunteers.
Instead, approximately 250 people showed up.
“That’s a nice problem to have,” Zimmerman said.
For him, the turnout speaks to something distinctive about PC students.
“This is what I think is the great thing about Presbyterian College — PC students show up for something like this,” Zimmerman said. “That doesn’t happen at every college.”
Zimmerman said that willingness to serve reflects both the character of PC students and the importance they place on service.
“I think it shows the quality of students that we get at Presbyterian College,” he said. “I think it shows the importance of service to the students who come to PC.”
Service Behind the Scenes
Although First Presbyterian Church normally hosts the event, circumstances required organizers to move this year’s meal-packing project to PC.
Hyrams said the response to the change became an example of the same spirit of service the event was designed to teach.
Church members, college administrators and others worked together to make sure the project continued as planned.
“We are brimming still with volunteers,” Hyrams said, adding that the response “just speaks to the importance of wanting to do this actual work and wanting to do it together.”
Zimmerman credited PC athletics administrator Dee Nichols with helping identify the Mabry-Smith-Yonce Center as an alternative location. Head wrestling coach Mark Cody and members of the Blue Hose men’s wrestling team also helped transport tables from First Presbyterian Church to campus and planned to return them after the event.
For Zimmerman, even the work required to make the event happen reinforced its larger message.
“Again, an example of service at Presbyterian College,” he said.
For PC’s newest students, that message came before the first lecture, assignment or exam of their college careers.
Their introduction to Presbyterian College began instead around rows of tables, working beside classmates, church members and community volunteers — learning through experience that service is not simply something PC encourages.
It is something the college expects its community to live.
