Ryan Weaver: Helping the next generation make a difference
- David Bohenick
- 2 minutes ago
- 7 min read
The Community Health Fair
The man took five seconds to breathe in through his nose just as he was advised. When he couldn’t take in any more air, he released it in a slow exhale, grabbing his wife’s hand while squinting at the sign behind the table that read ‘it’s cool to be kind.’
And before he could even realize, the room filled with the sound of velcro ripping apart. “All done,” the volunteer said as she peeled the cuff off his upper arm. The man smiled, gave a soft thank you and followed his wife to the next table.
Here he stared at a sheet of paper: a questionnaire. He tried to decipher the bold headline at the top of the sheet asking ‘Are you at risk for type 2 diabetes?’ before flipping the paper to its other side, where the same question confronted him in Spanish. Now his eyes lit up and he hunched over the table as he went down the list of questions.
This wasn’t the usual scene at the Newton Street Community Center. Piles of board games stacked against a corner and posters advertising ‘Teen Nights’ and ‘Intro to Ukelele’ served as a reminder of how the 500 square feet are typically utilized.
But this morning, Ryan Weaver stood outside the entrance greeting residents and welcoming them into the community health fair. And while he might’ve been the first person the guests saw coming in- he’d be the first to say it’s not his event. Instead, his students Annie Bechtel and Lousedaina Nissage were responsible for bringing together the nine different volunteer-filled tables.
The fair was the culmination of their Presidential Citizen Scholars (PCS) project, a three semester long commitment with the goal of impacting the local community. As the coordinator of the PCS program at Salisbury University, Weaver made sure to be there but let his students run the event.
Nissage and Bechtel could finally take a breath as they saw guests walk in and experience their health fair on the morning of March 28.
And for Weaver, it was another morning to see his students take part in his lifelong ambition: civic engagement.
Who is Ryan Weaver?
Weaver was recently named a Civic Fellow for the American Democracy Project (ADP), a national organization dedicated to engaging students with civic leadership, at the end of February.
He began teaching as an adjunct professor for Salisbury University in 2016. His focus was on community-oriented lectures in the Clarke Honors College before teaching nonprofit leadership courses, prior to the introduction of a nonprofit leadership minor on campus. In 2019, he was offered a full-time position at SU to teach more courses and to lead the PCS Program– an interdisciplinary program at SU that operates under the institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement (PACE).
He was also a cofounder for WeHeartSBY prior to his position at Salisbury University, which he explained was a nonprofit dedicated to “inspiring community within community” by celebrating local unsung heroes.
Weaver has focused on civic leadership and community-based work for most of his adult life, but it’s hard to get him to focus on his past. Instead his attention is on what he and his students are currently accomplishing. Now, ADP opens the door for him to pursue this work on a national level.
“ADP in a nutshell is basically a group of state colleges and universities who work together and collaborate to engage students in democracy,” he said. “The Civic Fellowship is an opportunity for me to do the work I’m doing at SU, and engage other campuses that are regional public universities and colleges that are in that same sort of field.”
Compact26
ADP was founded in 2003 and was meant to be a state-wide and nationwide initiative to engage students in the political life of the community and the nation, Weaver explained.
For over two decades, SU has been involved with ADP and Weaver was able to continue representing the campus by presenting at the organization’s annual conference in Chicago.
Compact26 was a two day event held March 15-16, and served as a space for all students trying to lead civic initiatives in their area. Before Weaver even got to the conference, he had an idea on what he was going to say from his years of teaching.
“One of the things I try to talk about in my classes and the community is the difference between being alone and being lonely,” he said. “Being lonely is part of the hero’s journey.
“We’re supposed to go through our narrative with seasons of loneliness. In fact, some of the heroes we’re most attracted to are people who go through hard things. Nobody wants to watch a movie or read a book about a person who sits in a chair and does nothing. There has to be something for them to be resilient and persevere through.
“Loneliness, as a theme, is normal. But to be alone is a choice.”
He shared this idea while sitting at a table with a dozen interested students, but he didn’t do all the talking. Weaver also listened to their challenges and what they were trying to accomplish. It’s his hope as a Civic Fellow to provide a gateway for these students to join other students from different campuses to accomplish a mutual goal.
While it’s still too early for him to determine what these collaborations would look like, Weaver still intends to solve local issues. His focus has always been on creating local impact and helping guide his students to solving issues they recognize first-hand.
“While there could be national outcomes, my focus is always going to be– here’s the student from Fort Hayes, Indiana. What issues are people dealing with in Fort Hayes and how can they make an impact in their community? Returning to the local and hyperlocal I think is really important,” he said. “Even though it is a national organization, that would still be my focus.
“And some of these students are already doing that, so it would be more like them sharing what they’re doing, sharing what they want to do next and continuing that work. A cohort focused on that space.”
PCS Spring 2026 Cohort
Weaver already has years of experience guiding students toward their civic engagement goals through his work with PCS. In fact, it's impossible for him to say which projects were his favorite. He’d rather share the projects his current students were undergoing instead.
One group in this semester’s cohort was responsible for creating an ongoing free housing resource guide on the Wicomico Public Library website. Another group started weekly civic leadership clubs at James M Bennett High School and Parkside High School, with the goal of teaching high school students to think about community issues.
And a third group was interested in helping the city of Salisbury develop programming for a community center that has yet to be built. These students conducted Institutional Review Board (IRB) research and created a survey asking residents what events they’d want the community center to focus on.
Nissage and Bechtel’s community health fair originated from this research. With Nissage being a nursing student and Bechtel studying respiratory therapy, the two put their own health-related questions in the survey and conceived the health fair afterward.
“From those responses we decided the community should get a health fair, so they have access to these resources that they’re wanting and needing– free of charge,” Bechtel said.
The two students of the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) were able to identify a problem through their cohort they could solve together– just as Weaver hopes to see.
Both Bechtel and Nissage are also in the process of getting their Certified Nonprofit Professional (CNP) certification which prepares them to continue nonprofit work after college.
Kick the Clouds Away
Once the guest finished his questionnaire, he and his wife approached one last table. Here sat four girls with a laptop facing toward the guests.
“Thank you guys for coming,” Madison Lybarger greeted the two cheerfully. “The four of us just finished creating a book focusing on mental health and awareness–”
Before she could explain any further, the man stopped her with his hands, gesturing to them. He couldn’t speak English.
Without skipping a heartbeat, Lybarger called Nissage over to the table and asked her to explain their PCS Project to him in Spanish.
“We should really look into finding someone who has the time to translate our book,” Sara Noojin said to the other girls as Nissage continued to speak with the guests. “Now that we’re pretty much done with everything else, we have the time.”
Noojin and Lybarger, along with Jalen Hammond and Ally Bobele, joined Tidal Health, Chesapeake Healthcare, SWIFT and other nonprofits to present the fifth and final PCS Project of the Spring 2026 cohort: a children’s book called “Kick the Clouds Away.” With the help of SU staff and students, they were able to include illustrations and even curate lesson plans, word searches and crossword puzzles. And it all came together in time for the community health fair.
When the four girls next meet with Weaver, he’ll be sure to ask them ‘what else can you do for your project’ just as he had with Bechtel and Nissage. It's standard for all PCS students meet with Weaver once a week to make their civic engagement goal a reality.
“He’s that person we discuss our projects and this event with,” Nissage explained. “He’ll meet us and just ask, ‘what’s happening today? Have you done this or what could you be doing right now?’
“He’s like the light when you need help.”
“We only see him face-to-face once a week but we’re always in constant contact with him,” Bechtel chimed in.
Maybe the girls will bring up the book's language barrier, or maybe they’ll get inspired to pursue another area improvement before they see Weaver again. Regardless, Weaver recognizes the work and appreciates the ambition every student brings to their projects.
He invites any interested freshmen and sophomores to apply to the PCS Program through SU’s website. And as for his current and former students, he could only say one thing regarding their efforts.
“I hope you keep leading from the center of your story. I’m proud of what you’ve accomplished and what you’re accomplishing.”