Break Away
Featured Strengthening Community Block Session
About Aaron: Aaron serves as the Fraternity/Sorority Specialist at Break Away. With over a decade of professional experience in student affairs, including residence life, housing, student conduct, fraternity/sorority life, academic integrity, gender and LGBTQ+ programs/initiatives, violence prevention, and multicultural student engagement, Aaron is currently a PhD student at the University of Georgia in their college student affairs administration program. Aaron is a member of Omega Delta Phi Fraternity, Inc. and has served as a campus fraternity/sorority professional for seven years across three different institutions. As a doctoral student, his interests are exploring the lived experiences of professionals engaged in fraternity/sorority advising.
About Buck: Buck joined the Break Away team in February 2022, bringing over 20 years of experience in higher education administration and nonprofit organization management. He worked in a variety of functional areas in student affairs, including orientation, residence life, student activities, leadership development, community service, and student government on a variety of campuses, including Emory University, Auburn University Montgomery, and Richmond, the American International University in London. Buck spent most of his career advising sororities and fraternities, including a decade at the Georgia Institute of Technology, leaving the institution as Assistant Dean of Students/Director of Sorority and Fraternity Life. In the nonprofit sector, Buck worked as the executive director of the Atlanta Pride Committee and Pets Are Loving Support and served as director of development for Jerusalem House. Buck earned his MS at Florida State University in higher education administration and his BA in mass communication from Winthrop University.
About Aaron and Buck’s session:
Active Citizens are people who put community as a priority in their values and life choices. Using Break Away’s service engagement model, Active Citizen Continuum, learners will apply the tenets of Active Citizenship to their lives, their campuses, and their communities. Participants will come to understand their own Active Citizen story, and how to communicate this foundation to interested and involved communities. Breakaway is an internationally recognized 501(c)3, founded in 1991 at Vanderbilt University. Breakaway serves as the foremost authority on justice-driven alternative breaks for college campuses. They currently have a network of over 150 schools, more than 650 community organization partners, and thousands of alternative break alumni worldwide. Their mission is to inspire and activate thoughtful community engagement through justice-based trainings and programs. They envision a society of people who prioritize just and equitable community through their values and actions.