While many college students help themselves to sun and fun over spring break, some 45 UNC Asheville students will be busy helping others. These students will journey to New Orleans March 4-11, where they will work with Habitat for Humanity to reconstruct homes devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Students will engage in daily rebuilding projects while living at Camp Hope, a converted elementary school.

“People who are comfortable and privileged have some sort of obligation to help out people who are uncomfortable and underprivileged,” said Merritt Moseley, UNC Asheville Key Center Professor. “This will open some eyes. There’s a very high value in students knowing we’re part of a larger community-- a community that includes New Orleans.”

Students will participate as part of Habitat for Humanity’s Collegiate Challenge, one of the country’s largest alternative spring break programs. UNC Asheville senior Lauren Fox believes this opportunity highlights the University’s commitment to experiential learning.

“This is a great way to take the liberal arts education we receive on campus to the greater community,” she said. “It allows students to see what’s really going on in the world and to work hands-on with people they might never have met otherwise.”

The upcoming expedition is the largest trip UNC Asheville’s Key Center for Community Citizenship and Service-Learning has ever planned. Past experiences include a Martin Luther King Jr. weekend trip to Atlanta and a winter break rebuilding effort in Mississippi.

“There is so much to be done, and if one person can make a difference then 45 of us definitely will,” said Megan Graham, president of UNC Asheville’s Habitat for Humanity student chapter. “There is no greater feeling than helping someone else when they are in need.”

The Key Center seeks to maximize the engagement of students with the community by encouraging students to undertake service projects, reflect on what they learn through service, and to draw connections between what they learn in the community and what they learn in the classroom.

“We’re trying to teach students to be good civic members so they can become a part of a larger community that they believe in,” said Alana Rade, trip organizer and UNC Asheville alumna. “I’m really proud and excited to be a part of this group."

The service trip to New Orleans is sponsored by UNC Asheville’s offices of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, Parents Association, Student Government Association, Habitat for Humanity student chapter and Key Center for Community Citizenship and Service-Learning.