5 minute read
Live Last: Finding Ways to Serve
By Grace Eades '23
The “Live Last” award is a yearly award given to an SNU student who has dedicated a significant amount of their time and energy towards serving others. Two of these recipients, Emma Dilbeck and Sarah Dodd, reflect on what living last means to them.
“I never planned on coming to SNU,” admitted Emma. “I was actually set to go to OU and to be in their ROTC program.” However, after some medical issues, she was disqualified for military service. “I kept getting mail from SNU, and finally one day I was like, ‘Fine. I’ll just go on a campus visit.’ So I came to visit, and when I walked on campus, they knew my name.”
I think volunteering and serving should be out of the goodness of your heart.
After enrolling at SNU, Emma quickly submerged herself into the culture of living last, which earned her the Live Last award in the second semester of her freshman year.
“When I received the award, I was volunteering at the Bethany Children’s Health Center in the complex care unit throughout COVID,” said Emma. “These patients have very complex medical needs. Many of them are hooked up to lots of machines.”
While serving with Bethany Children’s Health Center, Emma took great measures toward ensuring that patients were as comfortable as possible and did her best to reassure children in a time when their contact was limited.
“I think volunteering and serving should be out of the goodness of your heart. [The award] makes me feel like this is something good, something important, something to continue.”
And continue she has. Emma serves across campus in a variety of capacities, all while continuing to pursue volunteer work in the greater Oklahoma City community. She hopes to enroll in the new Physicians Assistant program at SNU which will allow her to continue to serve.
“I plan to work with underserved communities and volunteer. There are a lot of gaps in healthcare that need to be bridged, and if I can be part of that, I’ll feel like I’ve done something good with my life.”
Sarah received the Live Last award just one year after Emma. The junior history and theology student immediately set her sights on researching issues of equity and ageism in healthcare. That led to her founding a program on campus that connects SNU students with Southern Plaza, a retirement home in Bethany.
“During my freshman year, my research was actually on ageism and physician assisted suicide in the state of Oregon,” explained Sarah. “As I was doing that, I saw more and more, not just how relationships with people 30-60 years older than me had been impactful in my life, but how detrimental it is for both older and younger generations when there isn’t a lot of inter-group contact. I really wanted to see that change, but I didn’t know how.”
After hearing about Southern Plaza from Dr. Doug Forsberg in her Christian Faith and Life class, she presented her desire to see a program connecting retired seniors with college students.
“Next thing I know, it’s not that he’s starting a program, he’s announcing to the class that I’m starting a program and he’s putting me in contact with the activities director over there,” Sarah recounted.
So, she put that vision into action, creating a program that allows SNU students to earn Christian Formation credit by spending time with senior adults at Southern Plaza on Sunday nights. “The idea is that we’re building relationships that are beneficial to both groups.”
Little did Sarah know how influential her work with Southern Plaza would be for her going forward. It was this program that earned Sarah the Live Last award in spring of 2023.
The award allowed me to study abroad in Jordan.
“One day I got an email that I’d been chosen to receive an award. That was huge news for me, as at that time I was hoping to study abroad, but I wasn’t sure how the finances would work out.” Receiving the award enabled her to study abroad in Jordan and that experience would shape the course of her education going forward.
“After studying in Jordan, after visiting Israel and Palestine, after traveling to Istanbul… my senior thesis is going to be on a subtopic of genocide,” Sarah explained. “I was there at the start of a new round of violence, a new war.” Being there firsthand, her eyes were opened to the issues faced in the Middle East. Coming back home, she had a new passion to become an expert on these issues.
Today, Emma and Sarah are close friends because of the shared experience of receiving the Live Last award. Their hearts for service inspire one another to make impactful changes in their communities for the better.
Learn more at www.snu.edu/snu-life/spiritual-life/livelast-service-program
