Students Travel the Country for Spring Break Volunteer Projects

Mar. 22, 2011

FLORENCE, Ala. – Students at the University of North Alabama who are opting for something different this spring break will have the opportunity to travel across the country for alternative spring break trips with the UNA Office of Student Engagement.

Twenty-four students and four staff members at UNA will embark on volunteer spring break trips to North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and South Dakota. Jennifer Brown, assistant director of student engagement for leadership and volunteerism, said the students will focus on different issues in various areas in order to encourage more youth to become active citizens, where community service becomes a priority in life.

“We want the students to have a greater sense of self and to think critically about social issues,” Brown said. “For some students, they’ll have right there in their face a level of poverty they’ve never seen before. We want them to take away a greater sense of community and make them more active citizens.”

Five UNA students and one staff member will travel to Maryville, Tenn., and the Snow Bird Cherokee Community, N.C., where they will work with Once-Upon-A-Time in Appalachia and will focus on the Cherokee National and rural Appalachia. Six UNA students and one staff member will venture to Galveston, Texas, to assist victims from 2008’s Hurricane Ike.

During spring break, seven UNA students and one staff member will work on home rehabilitation and renovation projects at Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D. Six UNA students and one staff member will travel to King, N.C., to work with King Outreach Ministries, Second Harvest Food Bank and Camp Hanes to help those affected by poverty.

“I think it’s great to dedicate your time by giving to others,” said Randy Thomason, a UNA sophomore who spend his spring break in King. “A lot of the people we affect on these trips don’t have the same opportunity as we do to go to a university and get an education. Someone with the privilege to go to college should have the responsibility to share a little bit of what they get out of the experience.”

For more information, contact the UNA Office of Student Engagement at 256-765-4248.