KENNESAW, Ga. | Sep 5, 2025

With the substantial investment of time and money needed to attend college, many people don’t realize some students struggle to have enough to eat, let alone a place to live. Yet, it’s a longstanding fact of life on campuses everywhere.

For example, one of Kennesaw State University’s most successful alumni, renowned Northwestern University biochemical and genetics researcher Ali Shilatifard, slept in his car for a time as an undergraduate in the 1980s, before a campus police officer noticed and helped him find a job. Later, that caring Kennesaw State spirit would become a formal program to meet student needs.

Campus Awareness, Resource, & Empowerment (CARE) Services has been supporting Kennesaw State students since 2011 by offering temporary housing, access to food, and other supportive services. It does this through four programs: CARE Pantry; emergency financial assistance; Resources and Supports; and the ASCEND Program, a year-round program dedicated to students who have experienced homelessness or foster care in high school.

CARE Services has been so successful that its model of care is now shared with other institutions through the ASCEND Center. ASCEND offers consulting services and training to other colleges and universities to help them identify homeless students, those who require assistance meeting basic needs, or are foster care youth, and connect them with campus and community resources.

“While an increasing number of colleges and universities have embraced the call to meet students’ basic needs, what was missing is practical, hands-on training from experienced practitioners to move campuses from awareness to fully realized action,” said Lauren Padgett, director of CARE Services. 

The ASCEND Center provides program evaluation and four training levels to advance the quality of services and improve college access, retention, progression, and graduation of students.

To date, the center has trained staff from over 40 colleges and universities, including 17 University System of Georgia (USG) institutions. In addition, ASCEND has received a gift from the Kroger Co. Zero Hunger/Zero Waste Foundation to train staff members from nine Historically Black Colleges and Universities in operating campus food pantries.

“Everybody in the state knows that Kennesaw State is sort of the crown jewel of these kinds of programs,” said Steven Fazenbaker, who leads Georgia Tech’s STAR Services, which provides food, housing, interest-free loans to students who have unexpected expenses, and even a clothing bank that loans professional wear to students for interviews or important presentations.

Fazenbaker recently called on the ASCEND Center to learn about CARE Services’ case management program, which helps individual students access the services they need and monitor their progress.

STAR Services was formed from a collection of independently operating programs on campus, Fazenbaker said. Since Georgia Tech brought those programs together under the STAR Services banner in 2016, it has continued to integrate how it connects students to needed services. Moving to a case management system is a logical advancement, he said.

Another USG school that has sought help from the ASCEND Center is the University of North Georgia, which has operated volunteer food pantries on all of its five campuses since 2016.

After seeing how the CARE Services food pantries on the Kennesaw and Marietta campuses are managed, UNG is working on a strategic plan to operate its pantries sustainably. Changes will include a new inventory system, strengthening local partnerships to support the pantries, as well as graduate assistants to help run them, said Darcy Hayes, UNG’s associate vice-president for well-being.

“We have a solid draft of our strategic plan, have been awarded two graduate assistants to help support the work, and are starting outreach to strengthen partnerships,” Hayes said. “Working with the ASCEND Center has been helpful. KSU has one of the best models on the East Coast.”

Another USG school, Georgia Gwinnett College, is in the early stages of implementing a comprehensive CARE-style support program on its campus.

“The ASCEND Center offered us tools that we could replicate easily and adapt to meet the needs of our students at GGC,” said J.P. Peters, assistant director for student outreach and service.

Outside of Georgia, ASCEND Center staff have also been asked by Metropolitan State University of Denver to conduct an external review of its Student Care Center.

While the ASCEND Center is helping other institutions of higher learning provide student support services, it’s gearing up to do even more with the help of a prominent international consulting firm.

“Accenture is working with the ASCEND Center to craft strategy and marketing assets to help the center reach more potential clients and thereby help more students,” Padgett said. “Accenture is providing six months of pro bono work focusing on enhancing the center’s strategic and operational capabilities. Leveraging our nonprofit consulting expertise, we aim to guide strategy refinement, data analysis, and operationalize processes.”

– Story by Gary Tanner

Photos by Judith Pishnery

A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees to its more than 47,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties, and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 8 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.