Students Help Community Members with Tax Preparation

A person with long curly hair works at a desk with a laptop, notebook, and water bottle. The laptop displays a Google search, and the notebook has handwritten notes. A printed paper with 40012 is also visible.
A student training to be a tax preparer listens during the session. Sixteen students took the training, and then helped members of the community prepare their 2025 tax forms.

N.C. Agricultural and Technical State University students participated in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and helped dozens of people complete their taxes.

A man stands in front of a classroom facing students, presenting a slide with tax-related questions and information. Four students, seen from behind, sit at desks with computers and notebooks.

Wil Golden from the University of Georgia at Athens, VITA Coordinator for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, works with student volunteer tax preparers to prepare them to help community members.

Sixteen students from all disciplines underwent advanced training and received certification as tax preparers for VITA, according to Devona Dixon, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Services.

The effort was in collaboration with the University of Georgia’s Family Financial Planning program and was funded through the USDA’s Higher Education Challenge Grant program. This initiative blends academic learning with community service.

Along with helping the community, the experience allowed students to deepen their own financial literacy. “They definitely learned how to prepare taxes,” Dixon said.

“Volunteering through VITA was an opportunity to give back to society,” said Elizabeth Acquah, a Food and Nutritional Sciences graduate student who volunteered with the program.

The department partnered with Mount Olivet AME Zion Church to provide the free tax preparation service.

“There is a need for preparation of taxes for international students, so that is something that we are probably going to start looking into for next year,” Dixon said.

Gallery

A man stands and gestures while speaking to students seated at computers in a classroom. One student appears focused on paperwork, while others look toward the instructor. Computer monitors and documents are visible on the desks.

tax2 – resized

A man sits at a desk using a laptop while holding and reading a large document or folder. Multiple computer monitors, papers, and a phone are on the desk. The workspace appears to be an office or computer lab.

tax1 – resized

Several people sit at a long table working on laptops with papers, food containers, notebooks, and water bottles beside them. One person in the foreground examines printed documents.

tax4 – resized

Three people stand smiling in a classroom. One person in the center wears an NC A&T Aggies shirt. Desks, students, and a projection screen are visible in the background.

tax6 – resized

Wil Golden, VITA Coordinator for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia at Athens, led the sessions. With him are Asst. Vice Provost Valerie Giddings, Ph.D., and Devona Dixon, Ph.D. of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Sang Wins Award

A man in a white lab coat with an A T logo sits at a lab table, resting his chin on his hand. In front of him are apples, onions, and ginger. Lab equipment and supplies are visible in the background.

Shengmin Sang, Ph.D.

Shengmin Sang, Ph.D., has received the Mary Swartz Rose Investigator Award from the American Society for Nutrition.  

This award is given to an investigator for outstanding research on the safety and efficacy of bioactive compounds for human health. It is supported by the Council for Responsible Nutrition.

Sang is Distinguished Professor of Functional Foods and Human Health at the N.C. Research Campus in Kannapolis. His research to identify the bioactive components from foods and herbal medicine, and to study their preventive effects on cancer, asthma, and metabolic syndrome has  yielded several awards Currently, his lab is studying the bioactive compounds in whole grains (wheat, oat, and barley), ginger, tea (green tea and black tea), apples, soy, and blueberries.