News from The Mahurin Honors College

“WKU had a lot to do with where I am now,” says George Eklund, reflecting on his time as an Honors student at Western Kentucky University. A 2009 graduate with degrees in Political Science and German, George now serves as the Director of Education and Advocacy at the Louisville Coalition for the Homeless. Working to advocate for people in his community and throughout the state, George shares how his journey of finding his passion and building the necessary skills to create change began during his time at WKU. 

OIt was during his studies at WKU that George first became exposed to housing advocacy. Giving him the space to grow and explore, George learned skills that would become essential in his later career. Benefiting from the project-based learning approach from his curriculum, George learned how to look at issues from outside his own perspective in order to inspire action. He says, “You look at an issue from 360 degrees and kind of figure out, ‘Okay, how can we move this to action?’... It is that kind of higher level of processing and analysis that I picked up there of not looking at it from one side, but really looking at [an issue] from all angles.”

Beyond just learning ways to view issues, George reflects on how WKU also gave him a foundation in crafting a message that resonates with people regardless of their background. He sees this in his current role in advocating for the homeless. He explains that when lobbying for statewide bills and reform, he has to understand that “Somebody from Louisville is going to think about homelessness different than somebody from Bowling Green or from Morehead or Paducah because it's everywhere in our state, but it shows up in our community slightly differently based on where we're at.” WKU allowed George to lay the groundwork for the advocacy he does now. 

Outside of his course work, George also expressed how important being a member of the Mahurin Honors College was to his development. As a student he was very involved with the program and was an HonorsTopper ambassador. The network he formed by participating in the honors community has continued to be important in his personal and professional life. George reflects, “The lasting impact of the Honors College and Western is that some of my dearest friends in this work are Western alums. I met them almost 20 years ago in Bowling Green on campus, and we still work together in a professional setting. And that is probably the true, lasting impact of my time at Western is the robust network of people that I can rely on and that I can count on to help me achieve my goals, and I can help them achieve their goals.” 

The network George was actively growing helped him shape his undergraduate experience. Building a network can seem daunting in undergraduate years, but George emphasized the growth that can come from it. In fact, it’s his biggest piece of advice for current students. He tells students to “Hustle. Get out there. Put yourself out there. Put yourself in situations that are unfamiliar, that you wouldn't normally do, because it's going to lead to other opportunities. It's going to lead to the next step.” George explains that it’s through this process that you can find what you’re interested in and identify who can help you get there. George stresses the importance of asking questions and finding mentors that can help guide you to your next steps. But most of all, he says that building and growing a network isn’t something to be afraid of. He advises students to be “fearlessly outgoing” because they can never know what they might find. 

Learning how to build a community and network followed George after he graduated from WKU. He was able to connect his interest in housing issues with post-graduate opportunities. Moving to Louisville post-graduation, George first worked with community building projects centered around vacant and abandoned properties. After departing to be a program leader for the nonprofit Bike and Build, which led cross country bike trips to raise funds for housing initiatives, he returned to Louisville in 2016 to work for his master’s in public administration at the University of Louisville. George got to take this experience with him as he became the Director of Education and Advocacy at the Louisville Coalition for the Homeless in 2019. 

George’s current role allows him to be directly involved with his community. In his own words, “My job is to direct and advocate for a proactive advocacy agenda that addresses people who are currently homeless, people at risk of homelessness, and to create more housing options to prevent homelessness.” Building on skills he learned at WKU, George has worked as a lobbyist and advocate for initiatives such as Kentucky legislation to offer free IDs and birth certificates for people experiencing homelessness. When discussing his current projects, including a bill to support homeless college students, George reflects, “I feel like Western gave me that foundation–gave me a really strong foundation–to build on to do what I'm doing today.” With the skills and communities he strengthened along the way, WKU helped George become the advocate for change that he is today.