A Memphis native, Stuart Keen ’25 attended Snowden Middle School, right down the street from Rhodes, enjoying frequent picnics just outside the campus. He knew that he, too, would one day be a Lynx. Now graduating, Keen leaves behind a legacy that exemplifies Rhodes’ tradition of service through countless community health initiatives and stands as a powerful example of Memphian resilience.
Keen entered Rhodes in the school’s first-ever cohort of Posse Scholars. With the goal of providing student leaders the support to affect change in their communities, the Posse Foundation grants full-tuition scholarships at partnering institutions. Says Keen, “As a Posse Scholar, I have been driven to help create a lasting, protective community here.”
Making community service the cornerstone of his education, Keen chose to major in health equity. In his courses, he saw the effect of the opioid crisis through countless scholarly lenses; however, this epidemic touched Keen not only as a student, but also as a son. After losing his father to an overdose, he applied for and received a Turley Fellowship to create We Carry Narcan, a program to distribute this life-saving tool and training community members on its use. Through collaborations with numerous on and off campus organizations, to date nearly 200 students, staff, and faculty have been trained on and equipped with Narcan.
Keen also works as a coordinator for the Kinney Service Program, and he used this role to extend We Carry Narcan to packing overdose prevention kits for the Memphis Area Prevention Coalition (MAPC), a nonprofit tackling substance use disorder. Now, he has created more than 80 Narcan kits for distribution at MAPC’s many community-facing events. “Being raised by a parent who held strong advocacy values, I wanted to get involved in ways that ultimately aim to provide service and a better quality of life to all people,” says Keen.
This extension of We Carry Narcan is just Keen’s most recent effort with MAPC—he also completed an internship with the group through Rhodes’ Summer Service Fellowship, where he worked MAPC’s many booths at farmer’s markets, pharmacies, and Memphis Pride Fest to distribute harm reduction tools like fentanyl test strips. Building on these harm reduction efforts, he also interned with Memphis nonprofit A Betor Way within their Syringe Services Program to lessen the risk of STIs for IV drug users.
“Through these internships and fellowships, I had the opportunity to use my own hardship to protect others from the risk of overdose,” says Keen. “I truly believe that Rhodes College is an environment where students can heal by creating projects that make a meaningful impact.”
Through his health equity courses, Keen also became interested in HIV research and prevention after seeing the virus’ overlap with substance use disorder. He interned at a third nonprofit, Friends For All, which spearheads various HIV prevention efforts throughout the city. There, Keen assisted in teaching a digital health literacy course. He also completed a fellowship through Rhodes’ Institute for Regional Studies to study HIV’s disproportionate impact on the American South.
Community involvement doesn’t end at health equity efforts for Keen. He is the current vice president of Rhodes Activity Board (RAB), which coordinates on-campus events like the Renaissance Faire, Rites of Spring, and countless others. Involved since his first year, he was recently voted RAB Member of the Year at Rhodes’ Campus Life Awards. He has also served as a Peer Assistant to help first-year students acclimate to college life and as a Rhodes Ambassador to plan and execute admissions events, where, he says, “I've gotten to witness the talent, intelligence, and determination of each of the classes below me.”
After graduation, Keen will continue his studies at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health to pursue a master’s degree in healthcare policy and management. He credits both his academic and extracurricular experiences at Rhodes with preparing him for this next step.
“Between the mentorship of professors, the fellowship and internship opportunities, outlets for on-campus involvement, and the chance to dive deeper into personal studies, Rhodes provides something—and more—for every single one of its students,” says Keen. “My time at Rhodes was truly like no other.”
By Hannah Meit ’25