By Kemper Ramsey

I have been working with CEF since the beginning of my freshman year at Carolina. For so many students, that first semester is a turbulent time – finding new friends, understanding a new town and a whole new group of people, and being pushed out of their comfort zone for the first time in a while. When I found CEF and started spending time with our members and advocates, I knew that I had found an amazing community of people.

Spending time in the office not only teaches how to navigate job searching sites, government programs, and credit reports, but also the most important business of providing support to CEF’s members as a friend and ally. I remember walking out of the office that first week I came in and feeling positively uplifted by the stories I had heard and the people I had met. I know I came into CEF thinking I would help people and educate people on their finances or how to build a resume, but I was unprepared for the genuine friendships and care that would come along the way.

So while CEF has helped so many in the Chapel Hill community to get jobs, become financially literate, and save toward their goals, the most incredible aspect for me has been the relationships I have built and the friends I get to see walking down Franklin street or coming into the office every week.