Brenna Johnson, Fort Hays State University

Brenna Johnson, a senior Organizational Leadership major, is an active leader in addressing hunger and poverty issues through her work in FHSU’s Global Leadership Project in the Center for Civic Leadership. During her time at FHSU, she has worked through university departments and programs to address poverty, hunger, and sustainability issues on campus. She has a strong passion for volunteering and serving others, and has coordinated several service trips within the United States and an international trip to Costa Rica. Brenna is an advocate for addressing the root causes of social issues and problems through direct service and by identifying solutions. During her college career, she has worked to raise awareness and educate others on the campus through a variety of programming including hunger banquets, presentations, conferences, food packaging events, and working directly with the student body. Brenna has a dedication for serving others in need, and her work at the university bears testament to that commitment.  
-Mirta Martin

The key to addressing the root causes of social issues and problems is to act through direct service and address root cause solutions. I believe in going beyond the direct service, but looking to seek solutions for problematic social issues. We are called to address and solve the problems, not just help with “band aid” solutions. I am a true believer in doing whatever I can to fix the problem, or at least to help raise awareness. Within the past few years, I have helped educate people on the severity of hunger and poverty at a local, national, and international level. In March 2013, I participated in the Guinness World Record Food Packaging Event. We were able to exceed the previous record by more than 120,000 bags, with the ending result being 479,034 hunger relief meals packaged. We set the record for the most relief packaged meals packaged in one hour by a team. That summer I traveled to Milot, Haiti to work with Global Faith in Action and the school they started there. Our group was able to help the school by doing maintenance work, feeding students, working in the classrooms, and by playing games with the kids.  
-Brenna Johnson