Lalata completes highest number of service hours

(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) May 18, 2015— McConnell Scholar Diana Lalata ('17) records 189 service hours for 2014-2015.
Lalata completes highest number of service hours

Diana Lalata

McConnell Scholar Diana Lalata (‘17) has recorded 189 service hours for the 2014-2015 school year, the most among McConnell Scholars.

Lalata was active in multiple service opportunities throughout the year, participating in McConnell Center service partnerships with Kentucky Refugee Ministries.

“I completed a lot of service this semester because I was first inspired by the kids I worked with at the orphanage home during my Costa Rica service trip,” said Lalata, who travelled with the University of Louisville’s Alternative Service Break on a service learning trip to Costa Rica in Dec. 2014.

“I volunteered with the Backside Learning Center of Churchill Downs and worked with what some may call an ‘invisible community,’” she said. “I tutored elementary and middle school students in English every week. I found it my duty to volunteer every week in order to keep the stability that they need to learn.”

All together, Scholars completed 2,844 service hours in the 2014-2015 school year.

Service is one of the three central pillars of the McConnell Scholars Program, and McConnell Scholars are actively involved with projects in the Louisville community such as La Casita Center, Kentucky Refugee Ministries, Project Warm, and Habitat for Humanity, among others.