Elizabethtown College Professor of Sociology Michele Lee Kozimor is combining her research on American Stage Rally with community service, through the Subaru Ambassador Program.

American Stage Rally is a grassroots motorsport event, in which both seasoned and amateur drivers race on closed public roads. Kozimor’s interest in rally culture first began after attending the Susquehannock Trail Performance Rally (STPR), which takes place each year in Wellsboro, Pa. and is considered to be the longest continuously running motorsport in the state.

Kozimor first came to know the Subaru Ambassador Program through Etown alumnus, Nick Wetzel ‘10, while attending an STPR event. It didn’t take long for her to decide that she wanted to get involved with the program.

The Subaru Ambassador Program was first founded in 2014 to acknowledge the loyalty of Subaru owners, while also providing ambassadors with resources and projects to support their local community. It requires an application and is only open to Subaru owners. Kozimor checks that box by owning a 2015 World Rally Blue WRX.

Since 2019, Kozimor has been working as a Subaru Ambassador through Faulkner Subaru Harrisburg, participating in a variety of Subaru’s nationwide initiatives, and volunteering her time to participate in local community service projects.

“We have adopted a section of highway off Route 81 in Middlesex Township that we clean up two times a year, for the ‘Subaru Loves the Earth’ and ‘Subaru Loves to Help’ programs,” Kozimor explained. “But it is the Subaru Loves Learning Program that I feel connects best with Etown’s mission to ‘Educate for Service’ and my own background.”

Faulkner Harrisburg’s community service work for the Subaru Loves Learning program reached new heights this past year through their initiative, “Cruise for Foose” – a driving event created by the dealership to support the classroom needs of Foose Elementary School in Harrisburg. The initiative was part of Boxerfest, the Mid-Atlantic’s biggest Subaru festival. Following months of planning, Kozimor and her fellow Subaru Ambassadors dropped off $3,000 worth of donated school supplies for six Foose Elementary classrooms in October 2021.

“Not only are we giving back, but we get from this program as well,” Kozimor said. “We are able to interact with each other, build a community of Subaru Ambassadors, build a community in our neighborhood and with Faulkner.”

Each month, Subaru recognizes inspiring stories about positive outreach from other Subaru communities across the country. “Cruise for Foose 2021″ was selected by Tom Doll, President and CEO of Subaru of America, as the winner of the October 2021 Love Promise Award.

“My mother was a passionate and dedicated teacher and vice-principal in an underserved school district in New Jersey,” Kozimor said. “It was partially in tribute to my mother and because I am a sociologist that teaches about inequality in the education system that when I have the opportunity to volunteer for the Subaru Loves Learning initiative, I am proud to do so.”

Kozimor has expanded her service with Faulkner Subaru to work with The Left Out Organization Program (LOOP) and the Central Pa. Horse Rescue. Currently, she is helping to organize a 5K Fun Run called, “Run for the Horses” to be held on Saturday, April 9 at Gifford Pinchot Park.

The work for Subaru Ambassadors doesn’t stop there, as many of them, Kozimor included, also volunteer at American Stage Rally events across the country. Ambassadors are crucial to the success of these events, as more than 400 volunteers are needed for each.

“I volunteer for a lot of different organizations and that’s something that I find unique about rally culture, it is run on so much volunteer labor,” Kozimor said. “It is really a volunteer organized sport and so many people are coming together to put this on. As a sociologist who studies work occupations and organization, I want to know, ‘How do you do it?’”

Through her volunteer work, Kozimor became enamored with the rally culture. She decided to team up with Etown alumnae Emalie Rell ‘20 and Dr. Barbara Prince ’12 to engage in ethnographic research, which the trio has been conducting for the past three years. They attend American Stage Rally events to conduct interviews and gather information about the lesser-known and under-researched sport.

“Working with Dr. Kozimor has been a wonderful experience,” Rell explained. “She is a great mentor and I always have fun conducting research with her. I have learned so much as a researcher since working with her, including the importance of enjoying the research you do, which has been monumental for my personal research.”

In a recent interview with the Open Paddock Rally Podcast, Kozimor and her team gave an in-depth look at their research.

“We’re examining the culture of North American Stage Rally,” Kozimor said. “We want to know the deep story behind why people participate in this sport, who participates, and why the sport is not more well-known.”

So far, Kozimor and her team have volunteered at STPR, New England Forest Rally, and Southern Ohio Forest Rally. Kozimor has helped involve Etown students as well, including Nyvani Molia ’23, a junior Criminal Justice major who will be conducting rally research this summer as part of the College’s Summer Creative Arts and Research Program (SCARP).

Kozimor and her team presented their preliminary findings to the American Sociological Association, and are currently working on an article submission for the Association’s quarterly magazine, “Contexts.”

“The fact that it can keep going, and it does keep going, blows my mind,” Prince said. “From competitors to spectators to volunteers, the fact that people keep showing up is really incredible.”

The team of Jays is currently working on a book prospectus as well, with the goal of working with a publisher that aims to serve both an academic and public audience.

Kozimor has also brought her experience and research with American Stage Rally into her Etown classroom to help her Sociology 101 students learn more about culture and subcultures while displaying research methods to her Sociology 330 students. Kozimor will also be teaching a First-Year Seminar titled, “Motorsports in American Culture” in fall 2022, where students will be volunteering at STPR while conducting ethnographic research.