Leaders in Service: Jessica Rodenbeck

Jessica Rodenbeck is a member of the 

ServiceCorps Scholarship Program at IUPUI

Age: 21

Major: Pre-Dental Biology

IUPUI students recognize Jags in the Streets as a resource that provides service opportunities on or around campus.  For those organizing the monthly service events being a part of the ServiceCorps program gives them another reason to delve into social issues. 

             Jessica Rodenbeck decided to educate herself and her peers within the ServiceCorps program on a social issue that has recently been brought to her attention.

            “I participated in IUPUI's World AIDS Day events and realized there was a lot I did not know about the topic,” She said in an e-mail.

This past Friday the ServiceCorps volunteered at the Damien Center, an organization whose mission is "to care for those affected and infected with HIV/AIDS." 

Traci Johnson is an AmeriCorps volunteer and the Volunteer Coordinator at the Damien Center.  She worked with Rodenbeck on coordinating the service event.

There was a library of “a bajillion books” that Johnson needed help moving from the basement to the main floor.

“They helped organize the books so we could move them upstairs,” she said. 

What Johnson enjoys most about her job is seeing people speak out about HIV prevention.  Jessica also wanted to be educated so that she could use her knowledge base to educate others.

“HIV/AIDS is considered a sexually transmitted disease, it is automatically assumed by many that one contracts it through sexual contact, even though there are many other ways for contraction, including blood donation, etc.,” Rodenbeck said.

Children can also be infected through their parents, making it a disease they contracted by no choice of their own. 

Rodenbeck: “Throughout history there have been many children kept from school…just because they were infected with HIV. Now that the virus and disease is more understood, people affected can live very close to a normal lifestyle.”