MLK Week of Service

Chances are you've heard about this year's MLK Week of Service, formerly the Day of Service. It's a big deal because it celebrates a hero of American history. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached the gospel of service everywhere he went. His sermons, speeches, and rally cries all point towards engaging with our fellow human beings. 


And what better way to do that than through service? Nathan Brunson, a 2011 graduate from the Communication Studies Department, says just that in his recent blog post about his time serving in City Year, a national service program that places recent college graduates in inner city schools to be mentors and tutors. Check out his post and our interview with him below.

Republished from "MLK Day: Leave a legacy of service" on January 8 from Nathan's blog.

Campbell Alumnus Nathan Brunson 
('11) poses in the Big Apple.

This is an op-ed I was asked to write for City Year's upcoming MLK Day of service. These opinions are mine and not affiliated with City Year.  

“Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” I doubt this is the first time you’ve read these famous words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and I know I’m not the first service-based non-profit volunteer to quote the revered activist whose life we commemorate on Monday, January 16th. 

But even if King’s words have been belabored to the point of redundancy, we can never overemphasize his simple message: service equals greatness. This is why I choose to spend MLK Day by serving in East Harlem with City Year New York.

As a tutor and mentor at PS/MS 57 in East Harlem, I often find myself telling the students I work with that they can do something great with their lives. That’s not just something I say lightly; these kids are truly special. 

Jalen is one of the fifth graders in our after school program. He is a great athlete. Sometimes at recess we play basketball together and of course I have to let his classmates score on me every once in a while. But when it’s just me against Jalen, there are no deliberate bricks; I try my hardest and he still beats me.Tony is another of the gifted students I work with. He has a great mind. When his fourth grade class was studying haikus, most other kids were stuck counting syllables on their fingers while Tony was analyzing the poet’s word choice and conceptualizing ideas like tone and metaphor. 

But regardless of athleticism or intellect, I know that every one of my students has the potential to achieve greatness because they each have the ability to serve.

Dr. King, however, would be the first to tell you that true service involves more than just ability; it requires a “heart full of grace,” as he put it, and a “soul generated by love.” When we’re able to serve others with no personal agenda, we are exhibiting the truest sense of love and what it means to be human. 

Unfortunately, it’s harder to teach a fourth grader “a heart full of grace” than it is multiplication tables. And “a soul generated by love” doesn’t come as easily to middle school students as does subject-verb agreement. But if there’s one lesson I hope to teach—or better yet, to learn—during my year of service with City Year, it’s that being a servant is the greatest thing you can ever do.

Exactly two months before his death, Martin Luther King concluded his famous Drum Major Instinct speech by envisioning the eulogy at his own funeral: 

[Don’t] mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school [or] that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others.

January 16th, 2012 is your chance to carry on King’s legacy of service and to begin your own. For many, MLK Day has become “a day on, not a day off.” City Year New York, alongside community volunteers and corporate sponsors, will spend the day building bookshelves, constructing planter boxes, and painting murals for several East Harlem schools and organizations.

Indeed it’s true: everybody can be great because everybody can serve. But we don’t do service because we want to be considered great; service is never a selfish thing. We don’t do service just to bolster our resumes or to be quoted in newspapers. We serve because it’s what makes us human.

Nathan (back row, far right) with fellow City Year corps members

S@C: Could you explain what City Year is and what you do on a daily basis?

Nathan: City Year is national service non-profit that works to combat the high school drop-out crisis. As a corps member with City Year, I serve as a tutor and mentor in a K-8 school in East Harlem. Running small-group literacy sessions, coaching students about positive behavior, teaching a class on service learning, and leading an after school program are just a few of the things I do on a daily basis.

S@C: What led you to want to serve with City Year?

Nathan: I knew that I wanted to devote a year of my life to service right after college. Actually I want to devote my entire life to service in some way, but I thought I'd start with one year. I chose City Year because when I look at the innumerable injustices in the world, I see that almost every one can be addressed by better education. City Year allows me to have a hands-on approach and make a tangible impact.

S@C: In which service activities did you participate at Campbell? Why?

Nathan: At Campbell I participated in just about every service activity I had time for: freshman move-in day, Operation Inasmuch, 9/11 Day of Service, MLK Day. etc. I chose to do these activities because they gave me the opportunity to meet people that I might not have otherwise encountered on campus or in the greater Buies Creek community. Also, it was a great chance to get my mind off of studying and do something for someone else.

S@C: Do you have a favorite service activity from your time at Campbell?

Nathan: My favorite service activity at Campbell would have to be freshman move-in day. That day can be very trying for a lot of freshman and their parents, so it's an awesome opportunity to ease someone's load (literally) by greeting them with a smile and letting them know that there are people at Campbell who care about them.

S@C: Do you have a favorite quote that motivates you to serve?

Nathan: Great question. I have lots. Two of my favorite favorites are by MLK and Gandhi, respectively: "Everybody can be great because everybody can serve," and "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." These quotes are similar in the sense that they acknowledge that service benefits not just the served, but the servant as well. When you truly lose yourself in service, you'll discover so much and be blessed in ways that aren't possible when you're only looking out for yourself.

S@C: Is serving while in college important? Why or why not?

Nathan: I think serving is important anytime, but especially in college because it's a time when it's easy to become too busy to serve. With papers, exams, extracurriculars, and social scenes, college can easily become very "me-focused," but I think service provides the college student with the chance to be more "we-focused" and broaden his or her scope.

S@C: Anything else you’d like to add?

Nathan: I feel like I've used the word "opportunity" a lot in this interview, but that's just what service is: an opportunity to be someone greater then yourself, even if just for a short time. I've never regretted a single service opportunity and I doubt you will either.

Read more about Nathan's adventures in City Year at his blog nate the great the case of...