This week’s Campus Celebrity shows that you can always make time for volunteer work. Look no further for inspiration to get involved in your own community and make a difference. Try to see if you can keep up with her as she bounces between giving admission tours at Lasell and completing service trips around the world!
Colbylyn Gilman, senior at Lasell College, is a senator on the Student Government Association, Resident Assistant for North Hall, a Blue Key Society Ambassador, narrator for the Vagina Monologues, and Co-President of Hope for Humanity, which won student organization of the year at Lasell last spring. Colbylyn and her co-leader, Courtney Braman, coordinate activities for Hope for Humanity with Cradles to Crayons, the Ronald McDonald House, Community Servings, Belle of the Ball, Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Greater Boston Food Bank, Centre Street Pantry, and numerous other nonprofit organizations. But that is just the beginning.
Colbylyn has been on two Alternative Spring Break trips through the Community-Based Learning Center (CCBL) at Lasell. As a freshman she went to New Mexico and worked with the Native Health Initiative, and as a trip leader her junior year, she went to North Carolina where she worked with Habitat for Humanity and Meals on Wheels. She has also been on a Lasell Says Thank You trip to Brooklyn, New York, helping repair a home that was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, a Shoulder to Shoulder trip to Antigua, working in a classroom of fifth graders, and has helped build three Habitat for Humanity homes.
Colbylyn spent last summer in Haiti working at the Be Like Brit Orphanage and was able to build a house for a family still struggling after the 2011 earthquake, as well as spend time with the 66 children who grow and learn there. “My heart is definitely still there in Haiti!”
Aside from all of her service around the world, Colbylyn teaches a ninth grade class full-time at New Mission High School in Jamaica Plain, as her student teaching practicum. She’s an English major with a concentration in secondary education. She wants to continue teaching since she loves it and eventually go to grad school for speech pathology.
Colbylyn says, “Service is something that I’m passionate about and things at Lasell like Hope for Humanity and the CCBL give me the opportunity to explore that passion and run with it. I’m a firm believer in that you always get more than you give when it comes to community service because no matter how much volunteering I do, the relationships, bonds, knowledge, and appreciation I receive are something I value.”