Carolina students enrolled in the Buckley Public Service Scholars program have been giving back to the state, nation and world since 2003. Based in the Carolina Center for Public Service, the program provides a framework for undergraduate students committed to making a positive impact through service.

“Our program allows Carolina to home in on this service to the state idea. A lot of our students do service in North Carolina,” said Katelyn Bodwell, the center’s program officer for community engagement. “With students, we want to make sure they’re committed to community engagement and putting communities first. I think that really aligns with the mission of the University.”

Students who apply and are accepted into the program complete 300 hours of service through direct and organizational service, policy and advocacy work, internships, nonprofit organizations, schools or hospitals. It’s a “build your own service” program, Bodwell says, because scholars can do service anywhere for any organization or initiative.

The 2026 graduating class was made up of 167 students that served a total of 85,507 hours, growing over the past 20 years from an inaugural class of 20 students in 2003.
They have 1,800 students currently enrolled and 3,500 alumni.

Once students enroll, they complete a service-learning course and four skills trainings, which can include leadership workshops, grant writing practice and project management guidance.

“What I loved most was the community,” said Nicole Osborne ’23, a former Buckley Public Service Scholar. “I quickly learned if you put yourself out there and get engaged on campus, you will see a familiar face every hour on campus. It was great because when I was new to campus, being engaged in my community was the best way to meet people and ultimately connect with the community.”

Marjorie Bryan Buckley, founder of the Carolina Center for Public Service, created an endowment to fund the Buckley Public Service Scholars program in honor of her husband Walter White Buckley Jr. More recently, Mrs. Buckley endowed the Richardson Connections Fund in honor of former UNC-Chapel Hill Provost Richard J. Richardson, to support professional development, internships, fellowships, and other opportunities for BPSS participants.

As scholars complete their service hours, they create a service transcript they keep with them even after their time at Carolina.

“We have students helping deliver babies at the hospital, students writing policy briefs for transitional housing, students researching food accessibility in eastern North Carolina and students building housing every Saturday here in Chapel Hill,” Bodwell said. “The work they’re doing is impressive and makes me very proud.”

Osborne says her work covered a wide range of public service. She baked and sold banana bread, donating the proceeds to Red Cross relief efforts after the wildfires in California. She supported the redistribution of food to 40 to 60 homes, and she worked at the Carolina Community Garden on campus and at the Marian Cheek Jackson Center in the Northside community.

“My hope is that our graduates leave with a continued spirit of service and that we’ve instilled the idea of supporting your neighbors, working with your communities and listening openly to take those values and lessons they’ve learned into the future so they can be great members of society,” said Bodwell.

Students in the program often go into public service, health and well-being services and education.

Osborne became a program manager for Social Capital Inc. and board chair of the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Boston. She says she gained a lot of foundational nonprofit skills by connecting with the community at Carolina through BPSS.

“I credit the Carolina Center for Public Service for helping pave my career path. When I was engaged in the community, I really fell in love with service work,” said Osborne. “Being in fellowships and volunteer initiatives, those helped me build skills that are very important in the nonprofit sector. When I reached my senior year of college, I knew I wanted to commit to this as a career.”