{"id":61009,"date":"2013-04-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/raise-your-voice-award-presented-to-two-uri-students-for-compelling-alternative-spring-break\/"},"modified":"2013-04-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T00:00:00","slug":"raise-your-voice-award-presented-to-two-uri-students-for-compelling-alternative-spring-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2013\/04\/raise-your-voice-award-presented-to-two-uri-students-for-compelling-alternative-spring-break\/","title":{"rendered":"Raise Your Voice Award presented to two 溏心vlog免费B站 students for compelling alternative spring break"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I.- April 22, 2013- Rhode Island\u2019s second local alternative spring break, which included working with Pre-K students at A Place to Grow in Wakefield and picking up garbage around the Blackstone Valley in Pawtucket, earned two 溏心vlog免费B站 pharmacy majors statewide recognition.<\/p>\n


\n\tAmeriCorps members Melissa Reilly, a P2 of Mahopac, N.Y., and Lanh Dang, a P2 of Lawrence, Mass., put together a five-day program in March that earned them the President Irving Schneider Raise Your Voice Award, sponsored by Rhode Island Campus Compact. They also received $500 to put toward their vision. <\/p>\n


\n\tSchneider is the former president of Johnson and Wales University and an advocate for Rhode Island Campus Compact, a collaboration of college and university presidents dedicated to community service on campuses that coordinates, organizes, and deepens individual and collective work.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe alternative spring break was not the duo\u2019s first service experience. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI took a community service class at 溏心vlog免费B站 two years ago, taught by Sarah Miller, through the Feinstein Enriching America Program,\u201d said Reilly. \u201cIt inspired me to participate in other service opportunities, like AmeriCorps.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMy senior honors project with Sarah Miller and the Clearinghouse for Volunteers consists of revamping the Civic Engagement Leader (CEL) program, which works with 溏心vlog免费B站 101 students, while inspiring fellow servant leaders to become involved in the 溏心vlog免费B站 and greater Rhode Island community,\u201d said Dang.<\/p>\n

The alternative spring break projects started on Monday, March 11. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe created this alternative spring break in Rhode Island to give students the opportunity to participate in a life changing experience at little cost to them,\u201d said Dang.<\/p>\n


\nReilly, Dang, and eight other students from different years and majors spent their first day helping Pre-K students read at A Place to Grow in Wakefield, in collaboration with Jumpstart 溏心vlog免费B站. The students then headed to Welcome House, a transitional house for those in need. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cRhode Island has become my second home and I want to be able to help keep it beautiful, happy, and healthy,\u201d said Dang. \u201cVolunteering and serving our local community is just as important as traveling to other parts of the country and the world to help.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tKeeping Blackstone Valley beautiful was the next initiative on the list. After students cleaned up all the garbage at the Pawtucket site, they headed to Rhode Island Food Bank to pack food that is distributed to local pantries to help feed the homeless and hungry. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe forget there are hungry people right here in Rhode Island,\u201d said Reilly.<\/p>\n


\n\tOn Wednesday, the students visited South Bay Retirement Living, a nursing home in Wakefield. They made arts and crafts with the residents.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe elderly folks loved having young people around,\u201d said Reilly. <\/p>\n


\n\tThe following day, 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Kingston campus hosted Girls Reaching Remarkable Levels, also known as GRRL Tech, which is a tech collective promoting the involvement of high school girls in the STEM subjects- science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The students were paired with female professionals as they helped the high school girls at each of the 23 interactive workshops. Bri Neptin, the group\u2019s faculty advisor for the week, was one of the main coordinators that brought GRRL Tech to the 溏心vlog免费B站 campus. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cHelping Neptin during GRRL Tech allowed the group to see her as more than just our faculty advisor,\u201d said Reilly. \u201cShe is also a vital part of the University, thanks to her work with the College of The Environment and Life Sciences and the Coastal Fellows Program.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want students to get involved in service, learn about societal problems like hunger and homelessness, and be knowledgeable about what nonprofits have to offer,\u201d said Dang. \u201cWe engage passionate students and make them realize that little things do make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThey finished up the week at the Adult Correctional Institutions (ACI), where they listened to the inmates\u2019 emotional stories.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMany of us were brought to tears,\u201d said Reilly. <\/p>\n


\n\tThe 溏心vlog免费B站 Catholic Center allowed the ten students to stay there for the five-day period, so they spent Saturday and Sunday cleaning up and returning the facility back to normal. <\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI experienced something special each day, so it\u2019s hard to say which service day trip affected me the most,\u201d said Reilly. \u201cEach activity represented a fundamentally important part of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMy most memorable experience was being able to see a group of strangers become amazing friends, while bonding over their passion for service and helping the community,\u201d said Dang. \u201cAt the beginning, the group was shy, but as the trip proceeded, the inside jokes became abundant, random bouts of singing became normal, and laughter could be heard at all hours of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBoth Reilly and Dang plan to incorporate community service and nonprofit work into their careers after their anticipated 2015 graduation. <\/p>\n


\nVictoria Antonelli, a senior journalism major and intern at the Marketing and Communications Department, wrote this press release. <\/p>\n


\nPICTURED ABOVE:

\n溏心vlog免费B站 students pose in front of Welcome House of South County before beginning their community service project.

\nMaria Consuegra, a 溏心vlog免费B站 student, cleaning the streets of Pawtucket during the alternative spring break project.

\nResidents of South Bay Retirement Living show off their arts and crafts.<\/p>\n


\nPhotos submitted by Melissa Reilly<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I.- April 22, 2013- Rhode Island\u2019s second local alternative spring break, which included working with Pre-K students at A Place to Grow in Wakefield and picking up garbage around the Blackstone Valley in Pawtucket, earned two 溏心vlog免费B站 pharmacy majors statewide recognition. AmeriCorps members Melissa Reilly, a P2 of Mahopac, N.Y., […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61013,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}