Students walk to class in front of Withers and Daniels Hall. PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD

Andy DeRoin joined the GLBT Center as the new program coordinator on July 7, 2015. In this newly created position, Andy will help launch the Volunteer, Internship and Practicum (VIP) Program to engage students as leaders in initiatives across campus. The VIP Program will offer students the opportunity to engage and advocate for others through peer education, mapping gender-inclusive restrooms, alumni outreach and archiving the history of the GLBT community at NC State. Along with coordinating VIP members’ projects, Andy will continue to serve as facilitator for T-Files, the transgender peer support group and will begin hosting GSYPN, a networking group for GLBT-identified graduate students.

Andy is a recent graduate with a Master’s of Social Work (MSW) from NC State. They earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology from the University of Iowa and was able to serve as an executive board member of the GLBT Allied Union, which inspired a social work focus on program development, advocacy and community building. After moving to North Carolina, Andy served as a literacy tutor for the North Carolina Literacy Corps before starting their graduate studies at NC State. As a graduate student, Andy interned with the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition to advance harm reduction strategies across the state and U.S. South. Andy also interned with the GLBT Center, where they designed training materials to support awareness of the GLBT community and researched the needs of transgender, genderqueer and gender non-conforming students, resulting in recommendations and action steps to create a more gender-inclusive campus community.