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Students donate spring break to Habitat effort
Five Athens Technical College Students and
Director of Student Affairs Yancey Gulley traveled to
Concord, North Carolina, March 11 through 17 to put
their hearts and hands into a different kind of spring
break this year.
The Athens Technical College group that included
Mr. Gulley and students Lindsey Carter, Hannah
Hensley, Amber Horn Sharon Manderson and Russell
Marlowe joined students from Rhode Island’s
Providence College for an Alternative Spring Break
working on a house in a Habitat for Humanity
neighborhood in Concord, N.C. The event offered a
chance for students to share their time with those in
need and bond with the school, Ms. Hensley said.
“I decided to go on the Alternative Spring Break
as a chance to work with Habitat and to get more
involved at Athens Tech,” she said.
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The students worked completing the roof and
soffits and installing siding for the house. The house
building was part of a four-week Collegiate Challenge
offered through Habitat for college students looking for
something meaningful to do during their spring breaks,
Mr. Gulley said. The Habitat development in Concord is
about seven years old and has 18 to 20 homes already
completed with another 15 planned, Mr. Gulley said.
Habitat for Humanity is an international
organization dedicated to providing affordable housing
for low-income families. Through volunteer labor and
donations of money and materials, Habitat builds and
rehabilitates simple, affordable houses with
homeowner partner families working alongside
volunteers. The homeowners put in hundreds of hours
of sweat equity in addition to making a down payment
and monthly mortgage payments, which are reinvested
in future homes. They also volunteer on other Habitat
homes.
“The person who was going to be the
homeowner on the house worked beside us every
day,” Mr. Gulley said. “Since this was a Habitat
neighborhood, the neighbors cooked our meals each
day during lunch, and they came over and helped
because they had a house provided to them in the
same way, so our students were really able to see the
benefit of what they were doing and how that altruism
can help someone.”
Athens Technical College’s involvement in this
year’s Alternative Spring Break Collegiate Challenge
was ground-breaking for Georgia’s technical college
system, Mr. Gulley said.
“I think this is actually the first Alternative
Spring Break any technical college in the state has
participated in, so we’re excited about that,” he said.
Previously, the Technical College System of
Georgia followed a quarter system of class schedules,
to the college never had traditional spring breaks for
students to get involved in efforts like the Collegiate
Challenge, Mr. Gulley said. The switch to the semester
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system last fall made the spring break activity
possible, he added.
“It was a neat experience for our students, I
think. They really got to learn hard skills like
carpentry, how to put up vinyl siding, how to lay
roofing and how to do soffit work,” Mr. Gulley said.
“The other point is they learned how to get along with
each other. None of the students who chose to go
knew each other, so they all stepped out alone and
made friends and learned how to get along intergenerationally. “
“I had an amazing experience working with
Habitat and all of the people I met on the trip,” Ms.
Hensley said. “Not only was it morale boost to give to
such a good cause, but I walked away with new skills
and new friends.”
The volunteer group included students ranging in
age from 19 to around 50. The team worked for four
days, then took a day off at the end of the week and
visited the North Carolina Zoo as a sort of celebration
and wrap-up, Mr. Gulley said.
The Alternative Spring Break Collegiate
Challenge represents the first time any of the Athens
Technical College student participants have done any
kind of volunteer work, even in terms of a one-day
effort, making their decision to spend a week away
from home working for someone else very significant,
Mr. Gulley said. The trip had a positive effect on the
students, he said.
“What’s wonderful is each of them has contacted
me individually (since returning from the trip) and
asked what opportunities the college has in the future
for them to give back to the community,” he said.
As a matter of fact, one student, Ms. Hensley,
has expressed interest in starting a Habitat chapter at
Athens Technical College and volunteering with the
Athens Area Habitat efforts.
“We are in the early processes of getting the
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chapter up and running and I am thrilled to see
what the future holds with Habitat at Athens Tech,”
Ms. Hensley said. “I also will certainly look into any
such trip (as the Alternative Spring Break) offered by
the school in the future and encourage others to do so
as well,” she said.
Photo caption: Left to right, Athens Technical
College Students Hannah Hensley, Amber Horn,
Russell Marlowe, Sharon Manderson and Lindsey
Carter and Director of Student Affairs Yancey Gulley
spent their spring break in Concord, N.C. working on a
Habitat for Humanity house.
Don Nelson
https://www.athenstech.edu/Intranet/Management/spotlight/edit2.cfm?ID=350
4/3/2012
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