Emily Bowling

Biology | Class of 2006

Before she became coordinator of volunteer programs at Susquehanna University, Emily Bowling '06 had planned to go to graduate school to study biology or medicine. But when Bowling was a senior, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.

She watched the reports and saw the devastation and the needs of the people there. "I donated some money to the relief effort but wanted to do so much more," Bowling says. So she signed up for Susquehanna's first Hurricane Relief Trip (HRT) that year. "It seemed my time and energy was the best thing I could give."

While in Louisiana, Bowling says she "began to sincerely reconsider the career path I had always seen myself going down." The trip, which took place five months after Katrina hit, made her realize that although people in the upper- and middle-class communities were picking up the pieces, the poorest residents either had no means of returning home or no hope of receiving aid. "Before the trip, I was well aware of class divides and the socioeconomic status disparities within the country, but those issues came to life more than ever during my time in New Orleans," Bowling says.

The resilience of New Orleans' residents inspired Bowling. They "reinforced the notion that success and prosperity should never be measured by money or material items, but by how we use our lives to impact and help others."

Today, Bowling is nearing the end of her two-year AmeriCorps placement at Susquehanna as the coordinator of volunteer programs. At Susquehanna, Bowling coordinates service programs such as the Hurricane Relief Trips — which have continued each winter, spring and summer since 2006 — as well as Susquehanna's blood drives and Flex for Hunger, which enables students to donate leftover dining hall cash to a homeless shelter or food bank.

"My position is rewarding because I am able to coordinate transformative service experiences for students," Bowling says.

She organizes yearly service events for incoming first-year students and upperclassmen, and co-instructs the service-learning class Disaster Impacts in Society: Hurricane Katrina, an interdisciplinary course that teaches students about the multilayered impacts disasters can have on society. She also advises SUN Council, the umbrella organization for campus service groups, and supervises student service volunteers.

"I enjoy working at SU for some of the same reasons I chose to attend here as an undergraduate. The small campus size allows for meaningful relationship building between staff and students," Bowling says.

When she completes her AmeriCorps placement at SU, Bowling hopes to study educational policy, social justice or environmental justice at Portland State University and eventually earn a Ph.D. so she can teach at the college level.

"I'd like to be in a position that allows me to challenge young adults to be engaged in politics, social justice and environmentalism, as well as to question the destructive social, environmental, and economic policies and structures that exist in this country and in the world at large," Bowling says.