Center for Excellence in Learning through Service (CELTS)

05/20/2025

Our CELTS students are engaging with the greater Berea community day in and day out, building bridges and learning from each other. Thank you, Berea Story Trail, for the opportunity to collab!

Check out our latest story! This month's picture book "My Town, Mi Pueblo" is brought to you by Center for Excellence in Learning through Service (CELTS) and their students through the Hispanic Outreach Program.

05/08/2025

We at CELTS are thrilled to welcome the newest member of the CELTS staff team: Megan Martinez, CELTS Assistant Director! With a Masters Degree in Social Work (Community and Social Development Concentration), Megan brings experience working with diverse communities and individuals through neighborhood centers, case management, and financial empowerment programs. Fun facts: Megan is a Berea graduate and Bonner Scholar who was the Program Manager of the CELTS Habitat for Humanity program! Welcome (back), Megan! We’re so excited you are here!

05/04/2025

At the last labor meeting of the year, we celebrated this fabulous group of CELTS seniors! Many of them are completing their journey as Bonner Scholars, most of them will walk across the graduation stage today (!), some will walk across that stage in December, and ALL of them have made community engagement a central part of their Berea College experience. They have tutored, mentored, built, planned, researched, programmed, translated, and more - they have burst that Berea bubble by making connections between Berea College and our community. Seniors of 2025: we are grateful for you, we believe in you, and we look forward to continuing to see you shine! 💙

04/23/2025

Volunteer Appreciation: Spring 2025 is in full swing! We have here, plus volunteer pins for your stole, and lawn games! Come celebrate with us; CELTS wouldn't be what it is without YOU! (Volunteers received invitations in their CPO and email, voucher pick-up is here; food also available for purchase to all!)

04/14/2025

There is a thunderstorm watch 🌧 tonight, so we have our eye on the weather. However, we're celebrating our last week of spring programming and are looking forward to the activities our students have planned. 🥳

04/03/2025

Berea Teen Mentoring has cancelled their programming tonight, Thursday, April 3rd. Stay safe, everyone! 🌧

04/02/2025

Today is the day! 🥣🥣EMPTY BOWLS 2025🥣🥣is tonight, 5:30-7PM, in Wood-Penn Commons on the Berea College campus. Tickets available at the door, $15 to handpick your bowl and fill it with delicious soup, and funds benefit the Berea Food Bank. If you want to snag your tickets beforehand (and beat the line!), you can come to Stephenson Hall, second floor, and the CELTS office will have some available until 2 PM. Raffle tickets to win a piece of beautiful handmade pottery are only 5 dollars!
*Photo is of our 2024 Empty Bowls fundraising event with President Nixon and the Service-Learning team in CELTS*

03/31/2025

Stay dry during this rainy first week of April! ☔️Tuesday is the first annual All Peoples Of The Earth Day (APOTED) at Berea College. Our students will pause to celebrate the many folx who make up our beautifully diverse campus community.

03/27/2025

NEXT WEDNESDAY! 🥣🥣
Join us for the 22nd Annual Empty Bowls Fundraiser and help fight food insecurity in our community.
Wednesday, April 2nd
5:30 – 7:00 PM
Woods-Penniman Commons, Berea, KY
Tickets: $15 (Available at CELTS in Stephenson Hall during business hours or at the event)
Enjoy a warm bowl of soup in a handcrafted ceramic bowl—yours to keep. All proceeds go to the Berea Food Bank.
Plus, don’t miss the chance to win a stunning handcrafted piece in our $5 raffle, featuring work from talented local potters.
Come out, enjoy a meal, and make a difference. See you there!

03/24/2025

🌧🌤Spring is here! Our schedule of programmatic activities for the week includes a Berea Tutoring Fun Friday, and celebrations of art and warmer weather. To learn more about the programs we offer throughout the semester, drop an emoji in honor of Spring below! 🌷🍄🌳

03/18/2025

The Habitat Team is excited to have the third Connect event of the semester this week featuring two local Habitat Homeowners! If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to get a Habitat home, now is the chance to learn more. We’ll have a fun Kahoot, interview, and Q&A!!
📅 Thursday, March 20
🕒 5:30 - 6:30 PM
📍 Stephenson Room 226

03/18/2025

Join us for the 2025 Berea College Annual Service Convocation: Living History of the American Civil Rights Movement. Co-sponsored by the Carter G. Woodson Center and CELTS, the convocation will honor two Service Award Recipients, Jo Ann Bland and Hezekiah Watkins, and will include a facilitated dialogue exploring the award recipients' past and present roles as educators, related to the American history they lived and helped to shape.