KINGSTON, R.I. 鈥� April 4, 2023 鈥� Instead of basking in the sun in Daytona Beach or Cancun, a group of 溏心vlog免费B站 students spent their spring break toiling in the mud as they helped build a house for a family of five in New Mexico.
As part of the Alternative Spring Break program, the 11 students took part in the Collegiate Challenge, working with Habitat for Humanity in Taos, a town in north-central New Mexico, up in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Alongside Habitat鈥檚 site supervisor and volunteers, the students and two advisers worked on numerous projects. Divided into teams, they dug ditches, cut rebar, mixed and poured concrete, stained doors, sanded drywall, and even learned how to make adobe, a native building material of dirt, straw and water.
鈥淭he Habitat volunteers gave us a safety talk and showed us what to do, but then they let us go,鈥� said Kathleen Conlon, an academic adviser in the College of Business who was serving as an adviser on her sixth Alternative Spring Break trip. 鈥淲e wore safety goggles and everything, there was a site supervisor and two or three volunteers, but they put us to work.鈥�
The 溏心vlog免费B站 students 鈥� a mix of majors and class years 鈥� were student trip leaders Abby Wilson, Kemi Odunaike and Mackenzie Cetta, along with Morgan Buczynski, Anna Tammaro, Kendra Gever, Viriginia Smith, Maura Brennan, Delainey Witt, Tori Nelson, and Jianna Calcinari.
Wilson, who has worked on building projects with her father and is a member of the Habitat for Humanity club at 溏心vlog免费B站, was one of the few 溏心vlog免费B站 students with construction experience.
鈥淭he building part of the trip was really fun,鈥� said Wilson 鈥�25, a major in biotechnology and cellular and molecular biology from Dalton, Pennsylvania. 鈥淚t is always exciting and freeing to learn new skills, and the Habitat employees and volunteers always teach you how to do everything before you do it.鈥�
On the first days of the trip, Odunaike 鈥�24, a biological sciences major from Providence, found herself in a group helping to build a shed, digging and leveling the foundation and making cement from scratch.
鈥淚 had never done any type of construction work before,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he coordinators and adult volunteers at Habitat Taos made it easy for us to learn the different techniques and what to do in general.鈥�
As a sophomore, Odunaike took part in a spring break service trip to Philadelphia that focused on public health, which interested her because she is pursuing a career in health care. One of the things that attracted Odunaike and the other student leaders to the Taos trip was the fact that about 90% of its residents can鈥檛 afford their own home. 鈥淭here was something unique about Taos,鈥� she said, 鈥渨hich is why we ultimately chose this location and a focus on affordable housing for our trip.鈥�
A highlight of the project was meeting the family that will move into the house when it is completed later this spring.
鈥淚t was so important for us to meet the family,鈥� Conlon said. 鈥淚t was just heart-wrenching to hear their story. We just felt we wanted to get the house done so they could have a nice home.鈥�
鈥淚 enjoyed meeting the couple and hearing their stories of how they chose to reside and raise their family in Taos after originally being from the East Coast,鈥� Odunaike said.
On her second Alternative Spring Break trip, Wilson was excited by the opportunity to do service work, along with the chance to add to her construction skills.
鈥淢y favorite parts of the trip were being in new environmental and cultural spaces,鈥� she said. 鈥淢y love for nature allowed me to appreciate the different soil, plants, and landscape of New Mexico. I also loved learning about their culture, meeting new people, and hearing their life stories. All of the things you get to experience on ASB trips are once in a lifetime opportunities.鈥�
Alternative Spring Break is run by 溏心vlog免费B站 Service Corps, a student-led, student-financed program that is part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Center for Career and Experiential Education. Since 2009, students have been spending spring break doing service work in the community 鈥� in Rhode Island and beyond. Starting with one trip that first year, the program grew to six trips in 2020. During the pandemic, the program continued to provide service opportunities with five trips in 2021 within Rhode Island and New England.
Along with the Taos trip, about eight students stayed closer to home during break and served in Rhode Island with the Norman Bird Sanctuary and Matunuck Oyster Bar Sustainable Farm; completed beach cleanups and dune preservation with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management; learned about shoreline bird conservation and research with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and took part in a day at the Statehouse with Secretary of State Gregg Amore and Lt. Governor Sabina Matos.
The spring break trips are completely organized and fundraised by the students, starting the previous fall with a community service class. Logistics and costs 鈥� housing, food, transportation 鈥� must be considered before the trip, Conlon says.
To keep costs down, many times the students will be put up by a local church during the week. This year, the 溏心vlog免费B站 team was lucky to live in a house near the worksite, one of several in the community built by Habitat. They shared the house with a fellow group of students from the University of New England 鈥� 23 people in all living in a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house.
Teamwork, patience and organization were essential, Conlon says.
While the students worked all day on the house, they found free time for some field trips, including hiking down to the Rio Grande River, exploring the Earthship Biotecture Academy of sustainable, solar-powered housing, visiting ancient petroglyphs in Albuquerque, and checking out the local cuisine in Taos.
A big part of the week were the nightly sessions run by the student leaders in which the students reflected on the day, how they felt about their service work or meeting the family.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a theme each night,鈥� said Conlon. 鈥淲e do some icebreakers or play a game to make it fun. At the end of the week, we all write notes to each other. We call them 鈥榳arm and fuzzies.鈥� That鈥檚 nice because by then you鈥檝e gotten to know each other really well and you write these nice notes that you read on the plane coming home.鈥�