The Traveler

Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Larry Ash Freshman Whitney Jones of Little Rock uses a crow bar to pull up linoleum from the floor of a flood-ravaged home in New Orleans' lower ninth ward during Spring Break. Jones was part of a group of 14 students and one staff member who volunteered their breaks to help out.

For some UA students, participating in the Alternative Spring Break program and Collegiate Challenge during spring break was a chance to do something different and give back to the national community.

The ASB program sent UA students and staff to three different locations last week.

Thirteen students and three staff members went to New Orleans, La., to help with continuing recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina, said Veronikha Salazar, associate director of the UA Multicultural Center.

A second group, which included Salazar as a staff member, traveled to the Texarkana/Hope area of southwest Arkansas. Texarkana is the final resting place of Silas Hunt, the first black student admitted to the UA in the 20th century.

"Since I work directly with the Silas Hunt scholars, I thought it was nice to go there to motivate my students much more into giving back to the community," Salazar said.

While staying at a restored school house in Old Washington State Park, ASB volunteers were able to work with community groups, visit area high schools, and learn about Hunt's life and "work with his friends and relatives on a few projects," according to the ASB 2008 online application.

The cost of the trip to southwest Arkansas was $50, all expenses paid, and fundraising options were available to students.

A third group went to northeast Arkansas to work with a group called The Crossroads Coalition, according to the ASB application.

The coalition is "an umbrella organization made up of core components and partnering organizations and individuals, all of whom are actively seeking to enhance the broad-based (economic, community, educational and leadership) development of … ten counties in eastern Arkansas," according to the application.

The UA chapter of Habitat for Humanity also provided an ASB experience - called Collegiate Challenge - for 15 students.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools