Once a week, Elaine Codd, a personable UCLA senior who is immediate past president of the campus Panhellenic Council, leaves her books on the desk, mutes her own busy phone and does a four-hour shift on a Santa Monica hotline for abused women. It's emotionally wrenching volunteer work for which she has trained extensively over the last year.

 

"A lot of women will call just to talk," said Codd, a psychology major who wants to be a clinical psychologist. "They'll tell you their story, and oftentimes it's horrific and terrible, but they're not ready to leave [their abuser]. As the person on the other end of the phone, it's obviously very difficult because you see the danger they're in."

 

Codd is one of UCLA's many highly committed student volunteers, combining on-campus and off-campus service to others in the best tradition of UCLA's "True Bruin" code.

 

As Panhellenic president, she provided leadership for 14 sororities, a time-consuming job that included educating, disciplining and inspiring close to 1,700 sorority women. She will continue with Panhellenic, training new president Ashley Naff.

 

"It's not always the most pleasant job because you kind of have to be a policewoman," Codd said. "But I feel like they respected me, even if they didn't always love what I had to do to keep things moving."

 

She's also been active in UCLA's Model United Nations organization, which focuses on international relations, diplomacy and the UN agenda. And she's also an intern at UCLA's Social Interaction and Social Stigma Lab, where she is viewed as an innovator and a "go-getter."

 

"She's very dedicated to academics and to school and to learning more," said Jenessa R. Shapiro, an assistant professor of psychology whose research at the lab focuses on intergroup interaction and social stigma. "She's also a pleasure to be around."

 

On a chilly day outside of the Kerckhoff coffee shop on her way to a gym workout, Codd said she stepped up her already active volunteer commitments during her junior year because she felt something was missing from her life. She thought about her years at Mission Viejo High School and "realized that I had done very little true community service in my time at UCLA."

 

That led her to Sojourn Services for Battered Women and Their Children, work that is not always easy but always rewarding and worthwhile.

 

"I definitely do feel like I'm making a difference," she said. "One of the most interesting things for me is it's women from all different walks of life — it's every class, it's every race, it's every age."

 

Sometimes it's even college women and their boyfriends, which got Codd thinking about ways to better educate women on campus about this issue. So she is arranging to have Sojourn counselors come to campus to talk to sorority women about their dating relationships.

 

Ada Palotai, assistant director at Sojourn, said she welcomed the opportunity because often when women get to college, they need to hear what healthy and unhealthy relationships look like. Codd also helped round up UCLA students to help with Sojourn's participation in the Los Angeles Marathon, which raises money for the organization.

 

"She's been a critical lynchpin on that," Palotai said.

 

This ability to bring her worlds together is a trademark of Codd's. Another example: In her role as a research assistant at the Social Interaction and Social Stigma Lab at UCLA, Codd saw the need for more female participants in the lab's studies. She also knew that sorority women needed service projects as part of their commitment as members of their sororities and that it was sometimes hard for them to find the right opportunities. After many discussions on campus to clear the way, she spearheaded the effort to recruit UCLA sorority women for the lab's studies.

 

"She was able to see a need in two places," Professor Shapiro said.

 

Codd identifies women for the study, recruits them and coordinates their participation, a feat of organization that Shapiro said is more characteristic of a graduate student than an undergrad.

 

Codd did not rush a sorority immediately upon arriving at UCLA. During her first fall and winter quarter, she lived in a residence hall.

 

"I made some friends," she said. "I consider myself a social person. But it was very hard for me to connect, really, until I joined a sorority." After joining Gamma Phi Beta, she moved into the group's house on Hilgard Avenue with about 50 other girls (of the 150 members in UCLA chapter). She initially bunked — and "bunked" is the right word, since there were three bunk beds in one room — with five of her sorority sisters.

 

"I would never have chosen to do that," she said, laughing. "But because I wanted to move in so badly, that was the option, so I took it, and I'm glad I did ... You don't sleep really but that's okay."

 

Codd said she found the Greek life to be much more positive and laid back than she had expected. It was in her sorority that she found not just lasting friends but leadership opportunities she otherwise would not have had.

 

Among those opportunities is taking a stronger position on alcohol education. Although alcohol isn't allowed in sorority houses at UCLA, Codd is aware that the Greek life is identified with partying and drinking. She is deeply committed to educating sorority women and others on campus regarding alcohol use, particularly the dangers of alcohol poisoning.

 

Codd first became interested in the issue while at Mission Viejo High School, where she was one of the students involved in the Safe Rides, which provides no-questions-asked rides home for inebriated teenagers. At UCLA, she's worked with sororities that are faced with policy violations, including alcohol violations. Under a new initiative, the latter are required to undergo an alcohol education program.

 

"In the past, we've punished sororities by taking away a social event. We found it was fairly effective, but girls were getting sent to the hospital a lot, so what we decided to do instead is give them mandatory programming," Codd said. "It's a punishment, but it's really about education. And we've seen a lot of improvement."

 

In one case, she said, women who had gone through the program were able to quickly recognize when a student was in danger and get her emergency medical help.

 

"It made me thankful that we required these programs, because clearly they had an effect," Codd said.

 

At her graduation from Mission Viejo High School, Codd gave a speech in which she said that she knew from personal experience that "adversity can and will force you to step up" and that everyone has the ability to overcome their challenges. It is easy to look at Codd — a beautiful and admired coed who looks as if she has the world by the tail — and wonder what possible adversity she might have experienced at a young age. She is happy to share.

 

Codd's parents are immigrants —her father is South African, her mother Brazilian. Neither attended college. Codd herself was born in South Africa and is a dual citizen of South Africa and Brazil. Because she is not yet a U.S. citizen, she does not qualify for federal aid or Cal Grants for her education.

 

As an applicant to UCLA, she said she had to figure out on her own how to qualify for admission and fill out the paperwork. Her parents were supportive, but at the same time, the family was under financial duress after her father lost his job and started an Internet marketing business.

 

"We basically couldn't pay for food and tip-toed the line of losing our house throughout my high school experience," Codd said.

 

Once she was accepted to UCLA, however, she talked with her father about the options, and he said he would do whatever it took for her to attend college, as long as she worked during the summer. For the past four years, she's worked summers at a frozen yogurt shop in Aliso Viejo in Orange County.

 

While Codd was at UCLA, her family did lose their home, "in part because my dad decided that it was more important to pay my tuition," she said. Luckily, things have improved as her father's business has gotten better. But these struggles have made her degree more precious to her.

 

"I'm excited to graduate this year because it's not only a personal accomplishment but also an accomplishment for my parents and family," she said.

 

After graduation, Codd intends to go on to graduate studies, though she may take a break to save money. She also plans to become a U.S. citizen "as soon as possible."

 

Codd sees herself as a role model for her two teenage sisters and 10-year-old brother. It is obvious to those with whom she works most closely that she carried that same commitment to her role as Panhellenic president, Sojourn volunteer, lab intern and other activities.

 

UCLA Greek adviser Troy Bartels said Codd exemplifies the True Bruin values in every aspect of her life.

 

"She is truly one of our finest," he said.

 

UCLA's other Greek adviser, Mande Adams, heartily agreed.

 

"She excels both in and out of the classroom," Adams said. "Despite her busy schedule and many meetings, she finds time to give back through volunteering. She is very gracious and kind. Her values help keep her grounded and have shaped her into a wonderful, well-rounded woman.

 

"She's everything you think an ideal sorority woman should be."