{"id":3073,"date":"2011-03-15T14:56:47","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T18:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=3073"},"modified":"2011-03-29T09:51:44","modified_gmt":"2011-03-29T13:51:44","slug":"wright-state-students-return-to-appalachia-for-spring-break-service-learning-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2011\/03\/15\/wright-state-students-return-to-appalachia-for-spring-break-service-learning-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State students return to Appalachia for spring break service-learning project"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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\u2019s class will return to the area for five days beginning March 20.<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

First offered in Winter Quarter 2010, the course introduces students to the environmental, social and economic challenges affecting the people of Appalachia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was important to us to make sure we were addressing state needs,\u201d said Sarah Twill, assistant professor of social work, who teaches the course with Hunt Brown, director of sustainability. \u201cIt\u2019s a region at risk economically, and they have environmental issues from coal mining.\u201d The faculty believe that integration of classroom work and service- learning using multidisciplinary approach leads to a deeper understanding of complex issues.<\/p>\n

Twill and Brown are once again partnering with Good Works, a social service organization that helped coordinate the group\u2019s activities last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe rotate the students so that they have both environmental and social service experiences,\u201d Brown explained. \u201cWe want them to truly experience the interdisciplinary nature of what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown, Twill and 21 students will spend five days working on \u201cSamaritan\u201d 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an expectation that you work but there\u2019s 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,\u201d said Twill. \u201cA large part is also spending some time chatting with the people who you are assisting.\u201d<\/p>\n

That personal interaction is what Mary Kanoyer, a sophomore business major who participated in 2010, valued the most. \u201cGoing on the trip to Appalachia changed how I think of this area. I realized that it\u2019s not as bad as I thought it would be, and I also realized that I shouldn\u2019t think differently about the people in these areas,\u201d said Kanoyer. \u201cI realized that people don\u2019t care how much money they have or who has the nicer house or car, it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Brown, developing an affinity for the Appalachian people is one of the greatest benefits of the trip. \u201cWe want our students to understand the people in Appalachia the best they can in the short period that they\u2019re down there,\u201d he said. \u201cYou learn their stories, why they are the way they are.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Above all else, students in the course develop a sense of community and the feeling of empowerment that comes from making a difference. \u201cAs 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,\u201d said Tiffany Fridley, a senior English education and liberal studies major, who went on last year\u2019s trip. \u201cAs 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.\u201d\n\t\t