Maryville College Nonprofit Fair open to students, community members on Feb. 22 at Clayton Center

Feb. 6, 2024

Few things more ideally embody the Maryville College credo of doing good on the largest possible scale than community service, and the annual Nonprofit Fair hosted by the MC Nonprofit Leadership Alliance (NLA) gives students an opportunity to do just that.

This year’s fair will take place from 1-3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22 in the William Baxter Lee III Grand Foyer of the Clayton Center for the Arts, and while the goal of the event is to introduce students to area nonprofit missions, service and volunteer opportunities, internships and employment, the public is invited to attend as well. There will be no charge for admission.

“For students who have never attended, the Nonprofit Fair allows them to get connected with opportunities they never knew existed,” said Chris Freeman, director of the Community Engaged Scholars program at MC. “Every MC Student has to complete a Significant Practical Experience, and many of these organizations can help fulfill that requirement in a way that gives students the ability to serve a greater purpose. On top of that, you never know who you’ll meet at an event like this. I always suggest that students hop on any opportunity they can, because they never know what may come from it.”

Roughly 30 organizations are expected to attend, and last year, 162 students came through the event to collect information and meet representatives of such groups as A Place to Stay, Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians, Young Life, Good Neighbors of Blount County, Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont and more.

New for 2024, Freeman added, is the addition of QR codes at each booth that allow students to “check in,” so that further information can be shared between the two, and relationships can be built upon similar interests. 

“The Nonprofit Fair not only gives our students a chance to connect with community organizations, it also provides our community organizations an opportunity to tap into the resources of College,” he said. “We live in a world of constant connection through technology, and fairs like this give us time to focus on the person in front of us and have a conversation. I’ve seen ideas spark, passions ignited and spirits lifted every year at this event — and that is important on its own. 

“Working with our surrounding community makes the experience more impactful, as it helps us eliminate the invisible walls that higher education has historically created to separate itself from the community. Maryville College’s call to ‘do good on the largest possible scale’ can only be lived out if those barriers are nonexistent, and this event is just one way we chisel away at the paradigms of the past and push our institution to continue to be a part of this community for the next century.”

The fair is an annual event for the College’s Center for Community Engagement and is planned by students in the Maryville College Nonprofit Leadership Alliance (NLA) program. Proceeds from the agency registration fees help NLA students prepare for professional careers in nonprofit management.For more information, contact Freeman at 865-981-8299 or chris.freeman@maryvillecollege.edu.

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”