CCE director helps breathe new life into the house that service built

Situated on the southern portion of Carson-Newman University’s campus, sits a unique building. Constructed in an era replete with bellbottoms, shag carpet and Pink Floyd albums, the building is taking on new life. Home to the school’s Center for Community Engagement (CCE), the facility is being updated and brightened, facilitating an inviting spirit of collaboration and – as the name reveals – community.

The new look, in many ways, symbolizes a renewal taking place within the center’s walls. As transforming as new paint, fixtures and furniture can be, it is a renewed energy that is impacting students and the community. Spearheading the effort is the center’s new director, Courtenay Folk.

Folk’s journey to Carson-Newman began while working with her husband as full-time missionaries in Costa Rica. She served with two non-profits, one of which trained other missionaries to learn the Spanish language. The other, was Sojourn Christian School, which Folk rebranded and restructured – all during a time of COVID. Reflecting on that experience, Folk has no problem connecting the dots to where she is now.

“I fully think God was preparing me with what He was having me do there,” she said, pointing to similarities she found when hired as the CCE director.

Folk was given the green light to strengthen the CCE’s established programs while also growing new efforts to fully support the University’s Christ-centered mission. The idea of training a generation of servant-leaders was already close to Folk’s heart. Empowered and encouraged by Carson-Newman’s administration, Folk began taking ideas and making them realities. The result: a new program called “Six8 Scholars,” based on Micah 6:8 in the Bible.

“I love that verse,” she said. “‘To do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God’- those three things. I just really feel called to the idea of raising up servant-leaders.”

The newly developed program benefits students with scholarship money while emphasizing a commitment to service and academic development – rooted in Biblical servant-leadership.

Six8 Scholars joins two other service scholarship programs, comprised with over 60 students within the CCE: Community Connections Scholars and Bonner Scholars programs.

Each program offers different opportunities for students to grow, develop and discover their purpose while earning valuable scholarship dollars. Kailey Hoffner, a senior biology major with wildlife emphasis, says being a Bonner Scholar was a game changer for her.

“I definitely wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Bonner Program,” said Hoffner. “I’m from a blue-collar family, and Carson-Newman wasn’t in our budget.” The opportunity paved the way for the New Market, Tennessee, resident to not only study at Carson-Newman, but to thrive and become a leader within the CCE.

The students are not the only ones benefiting. The greater community is receiving over 18,000 total student service-hours per year. Part of that was witnessed during the University’s annual Serve Day in the fall, where some 600 participants took part in outreach projects across the surrounding region. In the days following, the CCE rallied students to help with clothes donations for those devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene.

According to Folk, the beauty is that everyone brings something different to the table. “All of our students are majoring in different things. We have student-athletes. We have nursing majors. We have people studying theology and biology. This is how life is beyond graduation,” explained Folk. “They’re getting real-life, rubber-meets-the-road experience. For some they’re like, ‘Hey, I’m going to be a nurse, and this is how I can also be the hands and feet of Jesus.’”

It’s seeing the impact of helping others that is making an impression on freshman nursing major Lexi Myers of McMinn County, Tennessee. For her, the center is already a highlight to her young college career. “The CCE house for me has been the perfect transition into college. Just getting to serve is honestly the most fulfilling part of college for me so far.”

With the spring semester right around the corner, Folk is already planning for a February 6 event that will host area families and ultimately benefit Appalachian Ministries of the Smokies as well as Isaiah 117 House. Big plans require a lot of work – but that only energizes the CCE director, who wants to see her students thrive compassionately.

“I want them to have a humble heart and realize that nothing is below them. I want them to see people around them for who they are – not for their skin color, language, income level or job status. Let’s love like Jesus loves.”