From Camp to Commencement: Kennedy Frink Reflects on Charlotte Journey
When Kennedy Frink first stepped onto UNC Charlotte’s campus as a teenager attending soccer camp, she felt a sense of belonging that she could not explain.
Years later, as she prepares to graduate from the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences with a B.A. in communication studies with a concentration in public relations and minors in journalism and public administration, that feeling of belonging has become the throughline of her college career.
“I arrived on campus and felt at home. I just really loved it and felt I could be myself at Charlotte,” Frink said. “We have all types of perspectives and backgrounds and people who have so many different lived experiences.”
Despite her excitement for what the future holds after commencement, Frink will deeply miss the community she built, the familiar faces and the comfort of belonging.
“I never felt like I was just a little person on a big campus. I love how I can walk through campus and 90% of the time, I’m going to wave to someone I know,” she said. “I’m going to miss it so much because it just can’t be replicated. It takes time to build that type of comfortability and community.”
Scholarship and leadership
A member of the University Honors College and Lambda Pi Eta, Frink has earned a place on the Chancellor’s List every eligible semester. In addition to her academic excellence, she spent the past three years involved in campus organizations.
As a resident advisor, she learned to take initiative and build relationships, even when that meant responding to crises like a leaking ceiling in the middle of the night. As a Peer-Assisted Learning leader, she facilitated weekly review sessions for students taking COMM 2100: Introduction to Communication Theory. She also served as a capstone mentor for the University Honors Program, guiding students through topic development, committee processes and literature reviews.
Her service extended into the community through Families Forward Charlotte, where she supported childcare and family-based programs focused on upward mobility.
Last summer, she interned with LEAD Girls of North Carolina, helping build their social media calendar, assisting with their monthly newsletter and earning an Emerging Leadership Certificate through the Truist Leadership Institute Fellowship Program.
“My internship helped solidify that I love the community aspect of being in the public sector. Value-driven work is very important to me,” said Frink. “There’s a longevity to it. Even when times are tough, I know I’m going to work to help amplify the voices of others.”
This summer, Frink will intern at the City of Raleigh Planning and Development Department as a communication and engagement intern.
A storyteller at heart
After spending her childhood imagining herself as a lawyer or a doctor, Frink realized communication was the perfect intersection of her strengths.
“I’ve always loved writing and I pride myself on being a very communicative and emotionally intelligent person,” said Frink. “Communications encompasses everything I wanted to do. I love connecting and learning more about other people. I also love to write, edit and tell stories, so it’s just the perfect combination.”
She chose a concentration in public relations for its blend of strategy, storytelling and human connection. Along the way, faculty members in the Department of Communication Studies including Tiffany Gallicano, Robin Rothberg and Marty Metzl helped her see she was on the right path.
“I had moments in their classes where I realized I was exactly where I should be,” Frink said. “I felt engaged, I knew I was learning and I felt I could contribute something to the class discussions.”
For her capstone, Frink pursued an interdisciplinary project drawing on her interest in childhood development and women’s experiences. Her research examined how race, culture and systemic inequities shape parenting and maternal health, which she presented at the 2025 Honors Research Symposium.
“It was one of the highlights of my entire college career. It really gave me the confidence that once I did that, I can really do anything else,” she said. “I now know that I can convey my research and explain why it’s important to other people.”
After her successful presentation, Frink was invited to speak at UNC Charlotte’s first Maternal and Child Health Student Showcase, where she explored how cultural humility and historical context can strengthen public health policy and care delivery.
“As someone in the humanities, I never would have imagined that my research could be relevant to healthcare and public health,” Frink said. “But this experience showed me the importance of interdisciplinary work in health spaces.”
The family who shaped her
Frink credits her parents, who had her while in college, as her greatest inspiration. Her mom brought her to lectures while finishing her degree, and her younger sister jokes that absorbing all of that knowledge as a baby explains her intelligence.
“My parents are both public servants, which has inspired me to pursue a career in the public sector as well. My mother is a social worker and therapist and my father works in sanitation, and they are the most hardworking people I know,” said Frink. “And my sister and I are very close. Everything I do is for her.”
One of her most meaningful projects was a multimedia journalism assignment where she created a video feature about her father, the collections manager for the City of Greensboro’s Solid Waste & Recycling Department.
“When you really learn about what they do and the importance of sanitation and trash, it’s so important, it’s very complex, there are so many moving parts and it can be dangerous,” she said. “It was really nice to go to work with him and see him in his element, see where he’s confident, handling business and an expert. I think it really brought us closer together.”
Looking ahead
Mindy Adnot, assistant teaching professor in the Honors College, encouraged Frink to apply to graduate programs she initially thought were out of reach.
“She encouraged me when I needed it the most and gave me the confidence to continue to aim higher,” Frink said. “I never would have applied to all of the graduate programs without that nudge.”
Frink was accepted to multiple Master of Public Administration and Master of Public Policy programs. This fall, she will begin the MPA program at UNC Chapel Hill, planning to become a press secretary, public information officer or communications director in the public sector.
Looking back on her college career, Frink is proud of earning enough scholarships to graduate debt free, maintaining a 4.0 and surrounding herself with friends who always root for her. She is equally proud of the future she is building, a career in public service and storytelling where her voice can truly make a difference.
“Now I know that I can compete with the best,” said Frink. ”I can have conversations and I can put myself in spaces where I can learn more and experience different types of perspectives and people, which is what I love to do.”
Photos courtesy of Kennedy Frink.