Pack United, or #PackUnited, is a student-athlete-led organization focused on promoting racial unity throughout NC State’s campus by engaging in community events, meeting with campus leaders and committing to volunteer work. The campus-wide initiative, working in close proximity with University Athletics, came together following the tragic death of George Floyd and the nationwide response that followed in the summer of 2020.

The organization positions itself off three pillars, according to its website. Those pillars are: awareness, which aims to help students understand how racial injustice affects them; education, which is based around teaming up with local resources to give NC State students a better understanding of these injustices; and action, which involves providing students with the opportunity to help make a change.

“From its beginning, those are sort of how we center everything we do,” said Peyton Barish, a fourth-year studying political science and the club’s outreach director. “Whether that means how we use our social media account, what sort of events we host within the athletic department or what we do out in the community or on campus. At the end of the day, the goal is to promote racial unity, while also raising awareness about racial inequities that are both really obvious … or stuff that [doesn’t get noticed] every day like education, inequity, food insecurity, housing insecurity, etc.”

Student-athletes from various sports compose the club’s membership, with six individuals acting in leadership roles: Barish from cross country, senior Jaeda Daniel from women’s tennis, graduate Melissa Evans from volleyball, redshirt juniors Isaiah Moore and Grant Gibson from football, and sophomore Carina Jordan from the gymnastics team. Jordan serves as Pack United’s president.

“So a bunch of us from very different social circles, in a sense, reached out to people within our administration to each other and said, ‘Hey, we would want to do something about this. We would like to add our voices to the conversation,’” Barish said. “And, initially, it was tough to have some sort of coherent messaging because we were, like I said, coming from very different social circles. But once we had the first meeting … things sort of started rolling from there. And that was where the whole mission statement was unveiled, the pillars were unveiled.”

According to the organization’s website, Pack United currently has 23 total members, including club leadership, and while the initiative has members from just about every Division I sport at NC State, its future plans for expansion and recruitment are extensive. Barish and Jordan both agreed that it would be imperative to take an active role in terms of the rotation of leadership on a year-by-year basis.

“So it started off really, really small,” Jordan said. “Just about eight or so people. Right now we have somewhere around 23 people that are part of Pack United. And we’re always looking to add more to our group. We’re always looking for more people to join Pack United because we feel like the more people, the better. More hands help do things. So we’re always looking to grow. We’re not super big now but hopefully, we’ll get bigger.”

Barish mentioned that Pack United is planning on having events in coordination with Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Barish also said that he would like to see the organization host a teenage leadership academy and partake in campus events like Shack-a-Thon.

Barish and Jordan both emphasized the unique connection that Pack United has with NC State Athletics. Barish said that the members of Pack United have a desire to be treated as adults and that Athletics has done just that.

“One of the things that makes us special, and I’ll brag on our athletic department administration for a little bit, they have been incredibly supportive to the degree that … [we] wanted to be student-led; they don’t hold our hands,” Barish said. “But everything they do, they’re like, ‘How can we help? What resources can we give you?’”

Both athletes mentioned Athletic Director Boo Corrigan’s involvement with the program and his ability to make the students feel heard.

“I tell just about everybody that I get the chance to talk about this person with, Boo Corrigan is the greatest leader I have ever been in the room with,” Barish said. “I mean, point-blank, period. I think that there is a level of respect and humility that he carries with him every day. … I don’t think it’s common for a lot of athletes to have that sort of relationship with their AD. … To have that support from, not only the athletic directors that we work with on a day-to-day basis, but to have the support from the guy who oversees it all is a huge deal.”

Some of Pack United’s accomplishments include providing mentorship to Centennial Middle School, sitting in on a meeting with CPI Security and Corrigan following the terminated relationship between the company and the University and volunteer efforts at local food pantries, and more.

Jordan noted the organization works to spread awareness through athletic events, with last year’s football game against Liberty and this year’s matchup against then-No. 9 Clemson serving as #PackUnited weeks for the school. However, both Jordan and Barish cited the donor dinner as one of their favorite events they’ve helped put together, a dinner that took place during the aforementioned #PackUnited week.

“The favorite from that week was unquestionably the donor dinner,” Barish said. “It’s not super often that you get a chance to sit down with a bunch of donors and tell them why you believe what you believe in, why and what you’re doing about a problem that you think needs solved. And so to get in front of them, and to share that message was a really big deal. … We’ve done a lot that I’m really proud of, but that probably takes the cake.”

Despite the expansive accomplishments of Pack United, Jordan and Barish both stated that there is plenty of work left to be done. According to Barish, the club is currently applying for 501(c)(3) status, but that’s just the beginning of the organization’s plans.

“At the end of the day, we picked the term Pack United for a reason,” Barish said. “And, obviously, there are 500 student-athletes, but we are a very, very, very small percentage of the campus. And there are groups that do great work on campus. There are groups that have great people within them that we want to partner with because that does eventually get us to the point where we are truly living out the mission that we set out to accomplish.”