The life of a volunteer
To hear Kenn Allen tell the story, it seems like happenstance.
It started with an announcement in “The Daily Illini.”
In 1963, campus was launching a new organization focused on student volunteering within the Champaign-Urbana community, and Allen was a sophomore struggling to find his place on campus.
“I was not a particularly committed student,” he explained. “I lived in the Pennsylvania Avenue Residence Halls where there were more kids than in whole towns I’d lived in growing up. I didn’t have the same anchors I’d always had.”
However, answering the call to action from the fledgling Volunteer Illini Projects changed the trajectory of his life. It opened doors and led to a life of service at the forefront of a nationwide boom in volunteering. This career led him to 40 different countries, helping to launch volunteer efforts in communities of all demographics around the world. And in the meantime, Volunteer Illini Projects, or VIP, grew to become the largest student volunteer organization in the nation.
More than 60 years later, VIP remains a student-run, student-staffed volunteer organization committed to making a positive impact in the community. Likewise, for his work on campus as a student leader and all that he’s done for volunteering around the world since then, Allen (BA, ’71, political science) was named the 2025 College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Alumni Humanitarian Award honoree.
“Working with VIP gave me a real understanding about the value and dynamics of volunteering. It was a tremendous privilege,” Allen explained. “I’ve learned to do it by doing it, and the most critical part of learning took place at the U of I.”
When Allen showed up for that initial VIP meeting, he signed up to manage the project for nursing homes and aging, taking student volunteers to Greenbriar Nursing in west Champaign. He moved up the ranks by his junior year to eventually lead the organization. They sent volunteers to elementary schools throughout Champaign-Urbana, to the veterans’ hospital in Danville, and to the state mental hospitals in Kankakee and Manteno and the state school in Lincoln. The scrappy group negotiated the use of university vehicles and set up a voucher system with the local cab company for students to catch rides around the city. They even orchestrated a luncheon with the chancellor to prove the need for new office space at the Illini Union.
“We asserted ourselves,” Allen remembered. “There are lots of people I’ve met who could intimidate me because of who they are. Working with VIP built my confidence.”
Allen began working fulltime for the university before he earned his degree. Later with support from the Departments of Political Science and English, Allen graduated while working fulltime under Dan Perrino, dean of Campus Programs and Services.
“When you see a group of people on campus volunteering, whether they be students, concerned citizens, or from a local company, there is a good chance you can make a straight line between those volunteers and the third floor of the Illini Union, the office of Volunteer Illini Projects,” wrote fellow alumnus Willard Broom, who nominated Allen for the award.
Through his work under Perrino, Allen connected with the Illinois governor’s office and eventually to Washington, D.C., where the Nixon administration was launching the National Center for Voluntary Action.
“It was like a VIP on wheels with a nationwide scope,” Allen explained. “It created a network of local voluntary action centers, many affiliated with United Way and many independent. We initiated programs and community demonstration programs that people could learn from.”
Allen started out as staff associate and again climbed the ranks to eventually be named executive director. Under his leadership, the organization was renamed Volunteer - The National Center for Citizen Involvement. Throughout the years, the organization evolved through mergers and name changes, eventually becoming part of the Points of Light Foundation (POLF), now known as Points of Light. It promotes a global culture of civic engagement and increasing volunteering.
Under Allen’s direction, POLF conducted the first ever research on employee volunteer programs. His publications have informed and guided leaders around the world in developing and evaluating employee volunteerism—now a common value in corporate culture, Broom wrote.
In 1982, Allen attended the International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) conference in England. Here was another transformative career experience, but this time on the international stage.
“The dynamic was that we began to understand what we had in common in terms of the commitment that people can make a difference in society,” Allen said of what he’s learned since working with IAVE. “Whether it’s volunteering in the traditional sense or it’s being a leader at the grassroots level, or an advocate for social change, or just being a good neighbor—this is what builds a strong cohesive society.”
Allen has been associated with IAVE as a board member and consultant since, meeting mentors and peers from around the world, including Foster Murphy, then head of the national volunteer center of the United Kingdom.
“Mutual support was a characteristic of the early inhabitants of the United States—today it is known as volunteering,” Murphy wrote in a letter of support for Allen’s award nomination. “One man stands out in the last 40 years as an advocate for volunteering, its good organization, its adaptation to multiple world cultures, and its importance for the maintenance of civilization. He is Kenn Allen. He is both quick-thinking and far-sighted. His smile lightens up a room or auditorium. His global contribution is widely recognized and deserves the approval of where his career began—at his own university.”
Today Allen and his wife, Maureen Shea, a political activist and veteran of the Clinton White House, reside on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Kenn is now semi-retired, still working with select clients and remaining an active volunteer at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Capitol Hill and for IAVE.
“Manifold is the number of those who can speak of Kenn’s deeply earnest and long-lived local and, indeed, global commitment to the civic engagement of enhancing life-opportunities for others, especially the young,” wrote the Rev. Paul Roberts Abernathy, who was rector of St. Mark’s, in his nomination letter of support for Allen’s award.
“For me, volunteering is about empowerment—about the ability of people to empower themselves and others, to put that power to work solving problems, building strong communities, and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity and the ability to participate fully in the world,” Allen said. “I don’t know that I deserve this attention. To me the University of Illinois is a magical place, and the fact that there’s anyone at the university who wants to give me recognition. It overwhelms me.”
2025 LAS ALUMNI AWARDS
Including Kenn Allen, seven alumni of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences have been honored this spring for their achievements, service, and giving. Learn more about the honorees here.
LAS Alumni Achievement Awards
Michelle Craig Barton (BS ‘78, PhD ‘89, biochemistry) is a world-renowned cancer researcher and educator who currently serves as co-director of the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University.
Paul M. Lisnek (BA, ‘80; MA, ‘80; PhD, ‘86, speech communication; BA, ‘80, political science; JD, ‘83) has served as both a prominent legal consultant and television and radio legal and political analyst, with his work leading to multiple Emmy Awards as well as Cablefax, Telly, and Beacon awards.
Doug Schemske (BS, ‘70; MS, ‘72; PhD, ‘77, zoology) has spent his career studying the ecology and evolution of organisms, making fundamental contributions to our understanding of pollination biology, plant breeding systems, speciation, adaptation, and geographic patterns of biodiversity.
LAS Dean’s Quadrangle Award
Keith R. Westcott (MS ‘78, PhD ‘80, biochemistry) spent most of his career as a research scientist at the biotech company Amgen. He also serves the Department of Biochemistry as a visiting professor, has established significant fellowships and travel awards for graduate students in biochemistry and the biosciences, and has been an active member of the University of Illinois Foundation.
Outstanding Young Alumni Awards
Juan E. Velàsquez (PhD, ’11, chemistry) serves as the director of biocatalysis and protein engineering at Merck, where he has led efforts in enzyme discovery and engineering for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals targeting cancer, HIV, and cardiovascular diseases. (Watch a video about Velàsquez.)
State Sen. Celina Villanueva (BA, ’08, Latina/Latino studies) was elected to represent Illinois’ 12th District in 2020. Serving as chair of the revenue committee, she focuses on topics addressing reproductive rights, immigrant rights, and workers’ rights.
Nominations are being accepted for the LAS alumni awards. Learn more here.
Editor's note: This story first appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of The Quadrangle.
