From its founders to its mission, service has always been woven into the fabric of life at Newman University.
For this reason, one of the many Newman scholarship offerings, the ASC Service Award Scholarship — named for the Adorers of the Blood of Christ (ASC) — has a focus on service and servant leadership.
In an episode of “The Newman Bond,” junior Nathan Huie shared how the ASC Service Award not only allows him to pursue his degree in business management but also encourages a lifelong commitment to service.
Newman and the ASC Service Award scholarship
Huie was one of a select number of students to receive the ASC Service Award scholarship at Newman in 2021. One requirement of the scholarship is that each student must complete 45 hours of community service per semester, along with one semester-long service/leadership class per year.
Huie’s grandmother introduced him to service at a young age. She attended Newman and introduced Huie and his twin brother to weekly volunteer work at The Lord’s Diner.
“Now, I personally like to go to The Lord’s Diner every Sunday and help clean, cook or take care of the carts and any food that needs to be prepared,” said Huie.
Even though being a member of the Honors Program and men’s soccer team keep Huie busy outside his studies, attending Newman and receiving the scholarship makes service a built-in aspect of his everyday life.
There are seemingly countless ways to volunteer on or off campus; whether it be during High Tea as part of Heritage Month, the Multicultural Leadership Organization’s Cultural Extravaganza, building a home for someone in need through Habitat for Humanity or even campus-wide service projects such as last year’s Numana project.
In March 2023, Newman community members came together in partnership with Numana, an international hunger relief organization based in El Dorado, Kansas, and prepared 22,000 bags of rice and soy, protein, minerals and vitamins for those in Haiti. For Huie, he saw this event as an opportunity to invite others to participate in impactful service.
“I helped organize a few of the soccer guys to come early that day as we packed bags for Haiti,” Huie said. “We knocked out a few thousand bags early in the day. We had fun and worked as a team.”
Students of the ASC Service Award scholarship are tasked with creating a capstone project — a culmination of what they’ve learned through their various service work — by the time they graduate. Huie has not only contributed to fellow students’ capstone projects but also has his own in the works.
“Earlier this year I helped with my brother’s service project with the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) soccer fields in northwest Wichita, the same fields where we played as kids,” he explained. “It’s a very special place to us. They have some areas that don’t quite get cleaned or fixed up as often as they should be, so Kenny got the soccer guys and we repaired the fields, put down some rock for the goals, painted some stuff, power washed and made it just easier to for all the youth to use.”
Knowing the service done today can benefit those tomorrow is a mindset that drives Huie to make a difference anywhere he can. His capstone project, which will gather volunteers to help clean areas in and around The Lord’s Diner, pays tribute to the service roots created by his grandmother.
“Not everyone gets the same opportunities in life, so if you have time to give back, you should,” Huie said.
Huie is already applying the skills he’s learned through the ASC Service Award program to his role as vice president of the Student Government Association and off campus as an intern at Textron Aviation.
“Making a difference for the students, finding ways to improve campus for them and helping them out in various ways was important for me this year,” Huie said. “At Textron, I’m a supervisor for a group and so I’m helping organize that, but also listening to their input. Listening, coordinating, taking their advice and knowing that everyone can contribute is very important.”
To the donors who chose to do just that by helping fund the ASC Service Award scholarship, Huie has a few thoughts:
“Thank you for the support, you’ve allowed me to enjoy Newman a lot more and flourish in different ways that I didn’t think I could coming out of high school. I’ve grown a lot in my four years and that’s quite a bit thanks to this scholarship that I received.”
Learn more about the ASC Service Award scholarship
The ASC Service Award and corresponding program are designed to enhance the servant leadership skills of students who demonstrate a commitment to civic engagement.
