Newsletter Apr-Jun. 2022

SLCC ALUMS MAKE COMMUNITIES STRONGER

Commitment to our community is embedded in the fabric of who we are as a college. Already in the 2021-22 academic year, more than 3,675 Bruins participated in 246 community-engaged learning courses, 32 Civically Engaged Scholars served 9,500 hours in our community, and 80 faculty and staff served nearly 750 hours in community services in Salt Lake County. We work with social entrepreneurs to launch and grow their nonprofits and businesses and with community leaders to build their capacity to affect change. Our students' engagement doesn't stop when they leave SLCC. They take the skills they acquired here and use them to create positive change in our communities.

SLCC alumna Amira Kherrallah ('20, Certificate of Web Development/Design) became an active member of the refugee community in Salt Lake after arriving as a refugee herself from the Central African Republic in 2019. Having recently lost her mother, Marie-Louise, to breast cancer, Kherrallah saw that too many women in Salt Lake's immigrant and refugee community lacked access to the basic information and resources that could prevent or all early detection of breast cancer. In response, she launched PreventHer, with the goal of changing health outcomes in the refugee and immigrant community.

PreventHer's mission is to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around Breast Cancer among refugee and immigrant population. The organization provides education about health, promotes prevention and early detection of breast cancer, and connects women to resources. "Being a leader in my community I have always wanted to contribute to [its] development." Kherrallah said.

PreventHer organizes free workshops and events to help motivate and inspire women. Although Covid slowed her work, she plans on holding educational workshops and run a mobile mammogram program this year. She is working on securing the organization's 501c3 non-profit status.

Don Korth launched the Korth Rebel Foundation (KRF) in 2011 with help from SLCC's The Mill Entrepreneur Center. Long time hockey enthusiast and coach Don Korth founded the organization to engage youth and strengthen the sport. The Foundation fills the gaps between sports training and life lessons that can be learned through exciting team play and inter-team interactions. Its primary goals are to pay league fees and to help with hockey equipment. The Mill provided training, resources, and mentors to help Korth grow a successful foundation.

The Foundation grants scholarships to pay for registration fees and equipment for young players. Hockey costs about $500 to equip and register one player. KRF also organizes free skating events for kids to learn basic on-ice skills. They plan to train current and upcoming high school team campaigns in leadership skills to succeed in the sport and help coaches financially so they can attend seminars and clinics.

Matt Cohen co-founded Sponsr with Clinton Jolley in 2020 to help kids easily raise funds for extracurricular activities that are often expensive and can strain a family's budget. Supported by mentors and resources from SLCC's The Mill Entrepreneur Center, Sponsr created a business model that pairs local businesses with the families and friends of kids needing funds to participate in activities that help them develop social and academic skills, boost their self-confidence, and improve time management skills.

Local business sponsors use marketing dollars to sponsor local youth groups. The kids share the sponsor's information with family members and friends and those that are interested in the sponsor's service or product listen to a 30-minute pitch. If they purchase from the sponsor, the sponsor donates an average of $250 to the kid's campaign. If no products are purchased, sponsors donate an average of $50. There are no obligations to purchase, and 100% of the donations go towards the cost of the extracurricular activity.