I’m Kayla Pringle, a multifaceted individual seeking to make a lasting positive impact through my future career endeavors! One aspect of this is my small business, founded in March of 2022, the Pringle Professional Development Advisory (PPDA), which focuses on positive, constructive professional development by offering career and project services. Academically, I am a candidate for a combined 3+1 B.S. in Information Technology and an M.S. in Library and Information Sciences at Simmons University. I am currently employed at the Simmons Beately Library and the Turner Free Library. I aspire to focus on the community-engaged aspect of Library Science to pursue a career in a public/community-oriented Library. My company, work experience, extracurriculars, and volunteer work have developed my proficiency in research, makerspace tools, Microsoft Office Suite, C++, Python, communication, and leadership. My goal in my professional journey is to remain enthusiastic and dedicated to learning and expanding my knowledge across different areas.
My current community involvement has centered on blanket-making through an organization called Project Linus, which creates blankets to comfort children in need, including those affected by terminal illness, experiencing homelessness, or in foster care. I recently collaborated with an organization called Bridge Over Troubled Waters to create no-sew blankets for youth experiencing homelessness who stay at the center.
My past projects with Dr. Garrett have been extensive, ranging from serving as a Service-Learning Teaching Assistant, having her as a mentor and advisor for the NUMutual Aid network I was on the executive board for, to her work with the Dominican Development Center.
When it came to the Service-Learning Teacher’s Assistant position, I had the amazing opportunity to coordinate 30+ volunteers for two service projects with Lifeboat Boston and NU Mutual Aid to uplift and support surrounding Boston communities in their fight against food injustice. Additionally, Dr. Garrett gave me the opportunity to develop reflection plans and PowerPoints to achieve the course objectives. The collaboration with NUMutual Aid was particularly helpful, as we were able to supply food to approximately 500 people over the course of the semester through the mobile food pantries we hosted. We had to coordinate with food donors around the city, sort through and weed out the food, and create ready-to-grab food packs for people who attended our food pantries, in addition to other ingredients we handed out.
I’ll never forget the day we had staff from Northeastern’s campus attend the pantry and thank us, with one particular mom stating, “I struggle to provide food for my family while working here full-time, but it’s thanks to you my children get to eat this week”. Now, with NUMutual Aid, it was a constant battle to cement our existence into the Northeastern community, with persistent pushback from the university because they were failing to address the root cause of the food injustice on campus. Dr.Garrett worked to secure advisor support and collaborated with students to educate and demonstrate the systemic issues of food injustice, both on campus and in the surrounding community, using an asset-based community development approach. Without these opportunities with Julia, so many, especially on-campus students, would not have realized there was an avenue they could take when experiencing food insecurity. I was introduced to grantwriting, student leadership, and how to positively impact a community by supporting the needs they themselves ask for through these experiences, which are skills I absolutely need for my future as a community engagement librarian.
On a personal note, Dr. Garrett was also one of my few supporters when I decided to transfer from Northeastern University to Simmons University, serving as both a reference and a source of encouragement when my family withdrew their support. I would not be the person I am today, moving toward a career I love, without Dr. Garrett, and I am thankful every day for the impact she has had on my life.
Julia’s comments ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
My work with Kayla has been especially meaningful because we worked together on so many projects! Each one revealed some new dimension of her extraordinary capacities for collaborating with me and her peers to accomplish important social justice work for students and community members. I am most in admiration of her leadership with NU Mutual Aid, a student organization and non-profit that a small group of Northeastern students pulled together during the earliest months of the COVID crisis. One of the most important projects they supported was a weekly food pantry on campus––open to students and others in the surrounding community at a critical time of food insecurity. Kayla worked tirelessly to bring in volunteers for that food distribution, and also helped to run the Interfaith Community Fridge near campus.
Kayla is also the only student who has worked as my service-learning TA for 6 different sections of my “Food Justice” writing classes. For these classes she supported students volunteering with over half-a-dozen community sites, including Lifeboat Boston where she frequently showed up to volunteer as well–sometimes twice a week. I was introduced to Kayla during my first year of teaching at Northeastern, and still feel fortunate that our office for Community Engaged Teaching and Research brought us together: I could not have asked for a more skilled, dedicated or enthusiastic student partner to help me develop community connections that would strengthen what my students were learning in our writing courses. I look forward to seeing what amazing things she will accomplish next.