This month, we talk with Karen Raymond, community partnerships coordinator leading the Office of Service-Learning’s Coaching4Success program. Learn more about this program and its opportunities for both UGA and Clarke County School District students as well as Karen’s career that led her to the OSL! And meet Mango – you have to meet Mango.
Q – Can you tell us about your current role and responsibilities with the Office of Service-Learning? What does your day to day look like?
A – I am the community partnerships coordinator in the Office of Service-Learning and coordinate the Coaching4Success program, which is partnership program with the Clarke County School District. Through this program, we train and send UGA students to elementary schools in the district to engage with 4th and 5th grade student-athletes after school through a curriculum that is play-based and focuses on social-emotional skills applicable to sports and academics. What my day-to-day looks like depends on where we are in the semester. At the start of the semester, it looks like meetings with the district and school leadership for planning and logistics, training retreats for our Lead Success Coaches—our student leaders, and recruitment efforts to attract general volunteers. Towards the middle of the semester, we begin our sessions in the schools, which means that I am out and about all week going from school to school to ensure everything runs smoothly. As we wind down the semester, we work on evaluations, end of semester celebrations and planning for the next semester
Q – Are you working on any new projects that you are excited about?
A – Within the program itself, we launched our experiential learning opportunity this semester. This means that interested students can join the program to gain experiential learning credit through additional involvement and leadership responsibilities. These students attain the title of Lead Success Coach and are assigned to a specific school where they are responsible for managing the daily activities of the program. Additionally, we facilitate a curriculum with our students that focuses on leadership and professional development support. From creating this opportunity to getting it approved and now running, it has been a very exciting expansion of the program. As we continue to garner more traction from UGA students and expand to more schools within the district, this has been a wonderful addition that hopefully enriches the students’ experience in the program.
Q – What has your career path been like, and what led you to UGA and the OSL?
A – My background is in public health. I graduated with my MPH from UGA last year, and while I completed it, I served as a graduate assistant at Archway Partnership, one of the eight Public Service & Outreach units at UGA. It was through Archway that I was exposed to the landscape of Georgia, the work that PSO does around the state, and how incredibly impactful that work is. When I saw that the role to run Coaching4Success was available, I was overjoyed! It gave me the opportunity to run a program that I view as a needed health intervention that supports the students in our community and helps develop social-emotional skills that hopefully contributes towards their health and educational outcomes in the future.
Q – What do you like to do outside of the office? Are you involved in any organizations or do you have any favorite hobbies?
A – Outside the office, I also serve on the board of a new non-profit called Global Hart. This non-profit is one that some of my MPH friends and I founded, and we focus on providing grassroots health organizations around the world with infrastructure and capacity building support. Other than this, I enjoy reading books (I am on a goal to read at least 50 books this year, I’ve read 30 so far!) and baking!
Q – And last, do you have any fun facts that your coworkers might not know about you?
A – I have a black cat named Mango! We adopted her last December. I am originally from Sri Lanka, but I’ve lived here since 2018. I am going back home to visit in December! Oh, and both my husband and I work in PSO (Nipuna Ambanpola – Fanning Institute).
