College fourth-year and women’s basketball combo guard Ellie Pollock-Ballard has spent her time at Oberlin balancing her academics, athletics, and a steadily growing commitment to community service, which has earned her national recognition as a member of the inaugural Allstate NACDA Good Works Team this past March. Her path to that honor, however, began long before she arrived on campus.

Community service, Ellie Pollock-Ballard explained, wasn’t something she fell into by accident. She chose to get involved early and often throughout high school, which led to four years of making a difference in college.

“I got involved [in high school] with a couple different organizations, like my local food bank,” she said. “We were working with a nonprofit organization that built beds for children of families in need. … We did blanket making for children in foster homes.”

These experiences quickly became a larger part of Pollock-Ballard’s identity. When she arrived at Oberlin, she was determined not to let service fade into the background behind labs, lectures, and basketball practices.

“Fast forward, I get to Oberlin, and of course I’m involved in athletics and have my academic side of things, but I was still in search of [ways to become involved in my] community,” she said. “In high school, I did a little bit of volunteering at a local Ronald McDonald House. … Something about that just really hit home for me,” she said. “So, that was my first step when I got to Oberlin.”

By the second half of her first year, Pollock-Ballard was regularly spending Sundays volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House associated with the Cleveland Clinic and Rainbow Hospital. From there, she spent her Winter Term working with Oberlin Community Services and kept looking for new ways to give back.

This year, she wanted to make an even bigger impact through leadership in addition to community service and was elected community service representative for the Student Athlete Advisory Committee at Oberlin.

That role placed her at the center of campus-wide initiatives for Oberlin athletics and beyond. One of the first major projects she led was a back-to-school drive.

“A huge event that I spearheaded was a community back-to-school drive … in the fall,” she said. “And then we did Holiday Hoops and we did a canned food drive. … [We’re] just trying to generate ideas and continually trying to figure out ways that we can make an impact on the community.”

Among these SAAC initiatives, Holiday Hoops remains perhaps the most cherished, both for athletes and for families in need. This year, Pollock-Ballard helped plan the Dec. 10 event at the men’s basketball game against Denison University. For the event, each varsity athletics team buys and wraps presents for one or more children in need for the holiday.

“Holiday Hoops has been pretty longstanding in SAAC … and it’s just a super important thing,” she explained. “The list of children we get [and their families] … are looking for our support in order to have the Christmas they should get.”

She also described the camaraderie of wrapping gifts together at the basketball game, how teams take pride in matching with kids based on their interests, and the sense of collective purpose the event fosters.

“It’s really cool to see all the different sports programs come together,” she said. “During the basketball game … we wrap all the gifts and then they get sent out to these families.”

While Holiday Hoops connects her sport to service directly, she sees deeper ties between basketball and her volunteer work — ones that began back in high school during COVID-19.

“I was like, ‘What can I do in an outdoor setting where I can have a few of my teammates …  come over, and we can work on different sprint work and skills, despite being in a time where we can’t all get together in a gym?’” she said of starting outdoor training groups. “I just purely did it because I love the game.”

Her later work included hosting free skills sessions for younger girls in her hometown as part of her fundraising for a 50-mile charity bike ride for cancer research, an event she has now completed three years in a row.

“Those two instances, just seeing how much of an impact it truly made … them looking at me as a role model, … was really unique and a super special experience.”

Oberlin women’s basketball has reflected the spirit of Pollock-Ballard’s initiatives through youth clinics, allowing younger players to engage with College athletes firsthand.

“It’s just so empowering to see how much they truly look up to us,” she said. “To think that one day, I was that little girl. … Now, being the source for them is something I’m definitely super proud of.”

Balancing pre-med coursework, basketball, SAAC responsibilities, and independent volunteer work would overwhelm many. For her, mindset is what allows her to make the biggest difference.

“I approach all of these different things with the ‘I get to’ mindset versus the ‘I have to’ mindset,” Pollock-Ballard said. “It just makes me appreciate the opportunities I have, … not taking anything for granted and being in the moment in every instance.”

When Pollock-Ballard was selected for the inaugural Allstate NACDA Good Works Team this past March, she found herself honored alongside athletes from across the country.

“It was super cool to be nominated among a group of 19 other student athletes,” she said. “Seeing what they’re doing in their communities was incredible. … [I felt] all the more motivated. I began building something, but there’s always more I can be doing.”

When asked what she would say to fellow students looking to get involved in service initiatives around campus, Pollock-Ballard offered practical advice.

“Just do it,” she said. “Do it in smaller increments at first. … There’s always ways to carve out a little bit of time that you can give back. … I hope people can see [that] I was a girl who just started trying to figure things out. It doesn’t have to all be perfect at first. It will figure itself out.”