NC Campus Compact AmeriCorps VISTAs helped lead Alternative
Spring Break trips near and far this past month, engaging students both in
service and in meaningful reflections of the experience to connect with
their day-to-day lives. Each ASB trip built on the VISTA's primary project
focus: k-12 education, economic opportunity, or
food
security.
VISTA Dalton Hoffer co-led a trip to the national historic city of
Philadelphia for packed week of activities
and service opportunities. The group served four
different community organizations in the area:
Philabundance
Food Bank,
Jewish
Relief Agency,
Philadelphia Reads,
and
Cradles to Crayons. These agencies allowed them to learn how Philadelphia is working on
improving its literacy rate and interacting with volunteers. The students then took that knowledge back to
Robeson
County which also holds a low literacy statistic. Six of the 9 participating
students are mentors in the
Brave
Impact Mentoring Program Dalton helped create. Focusing on leadership and
citizenship, Dalton said the trip "allowed [the mentors] to
work with and see how other partners utilize volunteers and interact with
students" and led to conversations about how to bring that work back to Robeson county and inspire a sense of pride in that work throughout the community. Check out
Dalton's video recap of UNCP's trip.
VISTA Anna Donze at Wake Forest University focused her trip in the community by hosting a
Staycation at her community partner site, El Buen Pastor Latino Community Services. Typically the site struggles during WFU's Spring Break as it loses the majority of its volunteer tutors for a week. The 7 WFU students on the trip served as tutors for the duration of the week, played with and supervised the elementary students during their free time and volunteered in the garden. One WFU student said of the experience, "We are helping nurture, mentor, and guide our next generation of youth. We are putting our heads together to care for the young people that will impact this world in years to come." They also designed and led a "Vocab Bowl" for the students to practice some vocabulary words that they may not use in the classroom, as the majority of the students speak only Spanish at home. Anna not only helped coordinate the trip, but also took note of the week's highlights to incorporate them next year for Staycation round two.
VISTA Takira Dale with the Duke Community Service Center also stayed close to home to host her
Dive
into Durham ASB trip. During this 5 day service experience, Takira and her
supervisor, Assistant Director of CSC Programs Dominique Redmond, led 10 students
working with various community agencies including
Duke Gardens,
Urban Ministries of Durham, the
Durham
Food Bank,
Habitat for Humanity,
Genesis Home,
Lakewood Community Garden,
and the
West
End Mobile Market. These agencies are committed to fighting hunger and
homelessness in Durham, and align with Takira's primary food security project
through the Community Service Center. After the service events, Takira led reflection discussions and panels, and created a contact list for these
student volunteers to stay engaged in the community throughout their
undergraduate career and into their futures. She said of the week, “One interesting aspect of this ASB was experiencing the wide variety of people working on solving issues of homelessness, hunger and poverty. All these organizations may have different methods but most are surprisingly interconnected.”
 |
WCU students conducting food
assessment surveys for the Lower
Nine Ward Food Coalition |
VISTA Willie Jones also focused on food security and
homelessness for his ASB, a complement to his primary project at Western
Carolina University where he is establishing a volunteer
gleaning program
and reinvigorating the campus garden. Willie and his supervisor Dr.
Lane Perry, Director of the Center for Service Learning, led a
group of 17 students to New Orleans to work with
Green Light,
The Green Project, and
Lower Nine, all organizations
who's focuses are to alleviate hunger and homelessness. Willie says,
"This was the first time WCU has traveled to NOLA and the first time
[WCU] has worked with any of these partners." The Center for Service Learning
is currently developing a system that will allow the university to have
multiple alternative break locations that can be rotated out on a yearly or
bi-yearly basis. "This way," Willie says, "the university will
be able to maintain the relationship they built with these communities."
Willie served as the food insecurity and gardening expert for the group.
 |
ECU students maintaining a rain
garden at a local elementary school |
VISTA Shifra Sered co-chaperoned a group of
9 East Carolina University students on their ASB trip to Carteret County, North Carolina, where
they stayed at
Camp Albemarle;
ECU's long-time ASB host. The group served primarily at
NC Coastal Federation, but also served with
Habitat for Humanity and the
Hope Mission soup kitchen. "By living in an intentional community and learning to rely on one another for support," Shifra said, "we were able to delve into service and educational experiences that challenged us to evaluate and articulate our values surrounding community, inequality, social responsibility and environmental justice." The group immersed themselves in the experience in part by limiting their food budget
to the current food stamp allocation, and by adopting the sustainable lifestyle
practices they learned through their service. Shifra designed and facilitated educational and
reflection activities for the students as well. She says
that after the trip, "We charged all of the student participants...to
design and implement a sustainability project back at ECU...[which will
hopefully] lead to a student-run sustainability club on campus."
VISTA Bevelyn Ukah and her supervisor James Shields, led a group of Guilford College Bonner Leaders to Charleston, South Carolina and St. Helena Island to learn about the history and contemporary realities of the
Gulla Geechie nation, specifically as they relate to race and class relations in the area. The goal of this trip was to give the students the practice working in teams to analyze poverty and diversity using place-based critical thinking.
NC Campus Compact's very own Office Manager, Rene Summers, also co-led a group of 9 Elon University students on a mission trip all the way to St. James Jamaica to serve with an organization called
Mustard Seed Communities, which serves children with special needs. The group spent part of their trip with the children and the other part completing projects ranging from light construction work, painting, farming and landscaping alongside the community and MSC staff. Rene and the group arrived safely back in Elon this week, but they will continue to hold meetings to reflect on their experiences.
All of these VISTAs have been planning their trips for months. Though each of
project may seem different, the goal of all is to engage students in a
deeper conversation with and understanding of their communities. Whether the groups went
North to Philly, South to NOLA, stayed in the state, or stayed right in their
neighborhood, NC Campus Compact VISTAs are shifting the conversation
these students are having and preparing the next generation of leaders and
community organizers.
More information about organizing and implementing alternative break programs can be found on the NC Campus Compact website on our
Alternative Break Resource page.
One student from from Takira Dale's Dive into Durham aptly sums up the ASB mindset: “Volunteering is so easy and refreshing, we should do it more often…I have no good reason to not be doing more.”
