Wright State students return to Appalachia for spring break service-learning project

In 2010, students in the Honors Program course, Environmental and Social Sustainability in Appalachia, spent their spring break participating in service projects in rural Appalachian communities near Athens, Ohio. This year’s class will return to the area for five days beginning March 20.

For the second year in row, a group of Wright State University students will spend their spring break participating in service projects in rural Appalachian communities near Athens, Ohio. The trip is the final capstone in the university Honors Program course, Environmental and Social Sustainability in Appalachia.

First offered in Winter Quarter 2010, the course introduces students to the environmental, social and economic challenges affecting the people of Appalachia.

“It was important to us to make sure we were addressing state needs,” said Sarah Twill, assistant professor of social work, who teaches the course with Hunt Brown, director of sustainability. “It’s a region at risk economically, and they have environmental issues from coal mining.” The faculty believe that integration of classroom work and service- learning using multidisciplinary approach leads to a deeper understanding of complex issues.

Twill and Brown are once again partnering with Good Works, a social service organization that helped coordinate the group’s activities last year.

“We rotate the students so that they have both environmental and social service experiences,” Brown explained. “We want them to truly experience the interdisciplinary nature of what we’re doing.”

Brown, Twill and 21 students will spend five days working on “Samaritan” projects, where they assist low- or fixed-income seniors and people with disabilities. Much of the work will involve home improvement or repairs. Last year’s group installed a toilet, painted a fence and tiled a bathroom. Owners provide the materials while experts teach the students the tools of the trade.

“There’s an expectation that you work but there’s also an expectation that you visit, because some of the people are socially isolated and may not have friends or family stopping by to visit,” said Twill. “A large part is also spending some time chatting with the people who you are assisting.”

That personal interaction is what Mary Kanoyer, a sophomore business major who participated in 2010, valued the most. “Going on the trip to Appalachia changed how I think of this area. I realized that it’s not as bad as I thought it would be, and I also realized that I shouldn’t think differently about the people in these areas,” said Kanoyer. “I realized that people don’t care how much money they have or who has the nicer house or car, it’s about the people they have in their lives. They have their family and friends who love and care about them, and who will support them during the bad times.”

For Brown, developing an affinity for the Appalachian people is one of the greatest benefits of the trip. “We want our students to understand the people in Appalachia the best they can in the short period that they’re down there,” he said. “You learn their stories, why they are the way they are.” Both he and Twill believe that this familiarity breaks down stereotypes, builds empathy and trust and hopefully will lead the students to become more involved citizens.

Last year, the class also volunteered at a homeless shelter, helped with spring planting at an organic farm, and cleaned up a park in the economically distressed community of Glouster. They worked with local farmers to bring produce to an auction barn and got an inside look at the restoration of Monday Creek, one of a variety of projects to restore area creeks that have been impacted by deforestation and coal mining.

Above all else, students in the course develop a sense of community and the feeling of empowerment that comes from making a difference. “As a whole, [the residents of this part of Appalachia] have taught me that money and success is not everything in life. The joy in their lives comes from helping others and not having an alternate agenda,” said Tiffany Fridley, a senior English education and liberal studies major, who went on last year’s trip. “As an outsider looking in, I can see how happy it makes them to be serving this community. If I can bring even the tiniest amount of their generosity into my life, I will be a better person.”