Saving the world through service – USUSA’s Emma Brain
Emma Brain is a woman on a mission. According to her mother, Brain “wants to save the world.” Now, as the newly-elected USUSA Service Vice President, she can inch closer to that goal by striving to make service relevant to every student at Utah State University.
“I think that’s what I like about USU: it’s given me a lot of opportunity to use my drive to make change in the world,” Brain said. “It’s really remarkable that this institution believes in students so much and gives us a platform to make change.”
Brain has had multiple leadership and service opportunities that have given her opportunities to serve others and make an impact.
Brain grew up in Holladay, Utah as the oldest of 4 children. In high school, she was actively involved in a variety of activities, including cross-country and choir.
During her senior year, she served as a student body officer. She said she enjoyed her duties as Assemblies Officer because she was able to regularly work with a group of driven and like-minded individuals. “I was definitely a little seedling of a student government nerd,” she said.
According to Brain, her greatest accomplishment so far came during high school in the form of a senior prank. Brain helped to organize “a giant horde” of students that met on one side of the school and live action role played, or LARPed, while running through the school in costumes. Brain had to talk with the principal because of her involvement in the prank, but was able to walk at graduation.
After graduating high school in 2016, she decided to attend Utah State University. She said the friendliness of orientation, the availability of scholarships, and being an hour and a half away from home all played a role in her choice to come to USU.
During her sophomore year, Brain became involved in a program called Circles in Salt Lake City. The Circles program is meant to help lift people out of poverty by connecting them with others in the community. Through the program, her family was able to regularly spend time with a homeless family in the area. That family is no longer homeless.
After this experience, Brain came across an opportunity to serve as the director for No Lost Generation through the Val R. Christensen Service Center. She applied for the position and has served there for the past year.
According to Brain, the purpose of No Lost Generation is to serve refugee children in Cache Valley. As director for the program, Brain has worked to create bi-weekly visits between volunteers and refugees in the area. The program has joined forces with Athletics United, so volunteers help these children train for a 5K in addition to helping them with homework. Brain talked about how eye-opening this one-on-one experience with the children has been.
“Sometimes, they’ll dive into what they’ve seen in countries that they came to America from,” she said. “You just don’t know until you go and meet your neighbors that are in Cache Valley.”
Brain’s desire to help others has shown throughout her life. Jenna Carter, currently a student at Dixie State University, has been a friend of Brain’s since junior high school. She said that she feels Brain will do “incredible” as Service VP. “She’s so compassionate. She’ll see things and go out of her way to help people,” Carter said.
Brain hopes to make the Service Center more accessible to students at USU during her tenure as Service Vice President. As part of that effort, she plans to create an online quiz so students can discover how their interests line up with service opportunities.
Brain’s mother, Chelle Brain, said her daughter’s desire to serve and involve others is a major part of who she is. “She’s a builder. She has a vision for what she thinks should happen, but she wants to bring people along and build it up,” she said.
Brain receives inspiration from her role model, Michelle Obama. She said she would “pass out” if she ever met Obama, commenting that she is “the epitome of grace and kindness, but also intelligence and strength that I hope that I can embody someday.”
When she’s not working with the Service Center, Brain also serves on the Government Relations Council at USU, where she has had opportunities to lobby at the state capitol and help students register to vote for midterm elections. She may also be found watching her favorite movie, “The Parent Trap” with Lindsay Lohan or her favorite TV show, “The Office.”
If Brain had one piece of advice for her fellow Aggies, it would be to set aside fears of failure or rejection. “I think all of the opportunities are waiting for you at USU. You just have to throw yourself in and be brave enough to go take them,” she said. “It’s all waiting.”
—alek.nelson@aggiemail.usu.edu
@nelsonalek