Oregon State Women’s Basketball guard, now alumna, Mikayla Pivec, has achieved great heights during her time at Oregon State, so it is not surprising that she would go on to create a volunteer opportunity of her own. 

Pivec completed her Bachelor’s degree in BioHealth Science in three years and moved on towards her Masters in Biochemistry and BioPhysics, all while competing in the Women’s Basketball Program. Along with her academic and athletic achievements, Pivec also stood out as  leader in the community volunteering in her spare time. 

“My parents also took me to a bunch of community service stuff when I was young, so I was involved in that and they encouraged me to get involved in the community that would support me growing up,” Pivec said. 

She continued to help serve people in high school and during her college years, playing Uno at the homeless shelter and working in Oregon States IMPACT program teaching yoga to kids with disabilities. 

“It started with my parents and them encouraging me to use my platform to the best of my ability,” Pivec said. “I know student-athletes have a big face in the community and a lot of people come to our games and support us so I wanted to be able to give back and support them in a reciprocal manner.”

Pivec’s most recent community service idea was created to help combat physician burnout. According to their research, physicians have the highest burnout rate than those of other professions and they are placed in a lot of stress in their work environment. 

“The idea started back when I took a class with a professor named Siew Sun Wong winter term. She is a professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State and I was the only person who took that class,” Pivec said. 

Wong continued to teach the small class, which turned into a mentorship with Pivec, guiding her to create something she would be passionate about.

“We started going over what I was interested in, I really liked health care and I really liked cooking so we took those two topics and tried to find problems in those areas. Physician burnout emerged and we wanted to look towards ways to support them,” Pivec said. 

The group noticed teams delivering meals to physicians and others in need and decided that would be their plan.

“Cooking and providing meals for them [physicians] was our idea and once COVID emerged, we saw a greater need for that,” Pivec said. “We also saw a way for the community to get involved and do something together during that time…Our group is called Selfless Servings and we are looking to reduce physician burnout and provide meals by helping small businesses and getting the community together during this time.” 

The Selfless Servings team consists of Mikayla Pivec, Amanda Tran, and Siew Sun Wong. Together, they have built this charity from the ground up and are looking forward to what comes next. Selfless Servings officially launched their website last week. 

Though charity is just getting started, the team has already raised over $4600 dollars via GoFundMe for their cause and have made over 80 deliveries to healthcare workers in the Corvallis area.