Josephine Juarez

Bertie Gardner introduces SGA president Daylan Anderson Harris and Wesleyan alum Ariel Armstrong for their breakout group presentation “Community Service through Student Government”.

Students and faculty from Texas Christian University (TCU), University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and Texas Wesleyan shared experiences and ideologies at the 2026 DFW Service Summit on Feb. 28.  

Hosted in the TCU Brown-Lupton University Union, the summit aimed to equip students with new ways to engage with their campus and community. The event started with a non-profit panel with representatives from Hope–4–Kids, Project 4031 and LGBTQ SAVES before beginning the first round of student led break-out groups.  

Jacob Vanderford, a graduate student in the TCU Master of Education Higher Education Leadership Program reflected on what has changed about the event since last year’s inaugural summit.  

“There was a lot more planning that went into this year; we did different checkpoints every month with staff from each institution to check in to see what we need to accomplish to make this investment possible?” Vanderford, the organizer of the event, said.  

The summit addressed many aspects of service, including some new and unconventional ways to serve others.  

Calliope Bradford, sophomore civil engineering major at the University of Texas at Arlington and co-presenter of breakout group, “Serve Outside of the Box: Unconventional Ways to Give Back”, shared what inspired her presentation topic.  

“Serving has this societal expectation of what it is; people forget all the different ways that we serve every single day and the way that we help others without even thinking about it,” Bradford said.  

After a quick lunch, the second round of breakout groups began, before closing out the event with a student panel.  

Sophomore business communications major at TCU Charlotte Gegare spoke about the importance of serving yourself when serving others to avoid burnout.  

“You cannot serve others if you yourself are not in the right mindset if you don’t feel like you can be spiritually mentally physically present with another person to be able to give them as much as you can,” Gegare said on the panel. 

Also presenting on the panel was Gabriel Hernandez, senior criminal justice major at Texas Wesleyan, who spoke about how to get involved with serving others.  

“Involvement starts with participation” Hernandez said in the panel. “So, whenever you see those [student org] tables, stop by, see what they’re doing.” 

Dylan Boekholt, a first-year entrepreneurship & innovation and finance major at TCU, wants to encourage that participation in the student organizations he is a part of.   

“I think I learned today how important it is to just try and also just go to events and show up.” Boekholt said “So I think I’ll be just bringing those programs and events this idea of showing up and just showing up and trying your best.”