Part of being in grad school I hold a graduate assistantship (GA), a part-time job specifically for grad students to gain relevant job experience in their field. Since July, I have been with the Center for Leadership and Service helping advise the Alternative Service Break (ASB) program.
This year, we offer 18 ASB trips during both winter and spring breaks. This low-cost, alcohol and substance free trip allows students to engage in a productive activity on their break (rather than partying at Padre or sitting at home doing nothing). Students are immersed in a community where they learn about a specific social issue and serve organization(s) in that city.
As the GA and program advisor, I help advise all 18 trips, however, I got the opportunity to be a trip advisor, meaning I traveled with a group of 11 students to Nashville, TN. Our trip social issue was focused surrounding public health (shout out to my SPH fam!)
We served with Project CURE almost every morning. Project CURE is the largest provider of donated medical supplies and equipment to developing countries around the world. We did multiple jobs around their warehouse including: building hospital beds, repairing wheelchairs, sorting pallets of medical supplies, and packaging medical supplies to be shipped out to Ethiopia! I learned how to use a pallet jack and how useful power tools can be.
We even helped donate supplies that Project CURE was going to get rid of to a different community partner in Nashville!
Outside of Project CURE we served a variety of different community organizations throughout the week.
- People Loving Nashville- provides a meal and clothes to those in need every Monday night. They also partner with other organizations to offer free showers and haircuts.
- Welcome Home- a structured alcohol and drug recovery program that houses men who have been incarcerated
- Trinity Community Ministry- we got to eat dinner with people from the East Nashville community
- Loaves and Fishes- we again got to have a meal with people from Nashville as well as we got to hear from several people who are addressing homelessness in various ways
- Second Harvest Food Bank- addresses food insecurity; we sorted frozen foods (yes, it was very cold)
- Family Affairs Ministry- serves the people in East Nashville; we worked at their location outside of Nashville in the country
In addition to these community partners, we also had time to learn more about Nashville through a driving tour and a walking scavengar hunt. Some of us accidentally met a freedom rider from Nashville, Ernest Patton, and got to hear his story about how the civil rights movement took place in Nashville and the role that he played.
We also got to eat a different ethnic food each night! We ate Thai, Soul Food (Swett’s fried chicken), Vietnamese, and Indian. Everything was super yummy!!
We also had an AWESOME guide, Jenn (far right), who coordinated our whole week’s schedule of service, education, and food!
I don’t know what I expected from this week but I found inspriation from this group of 11 girls and 1 guy. They worked incredibly hard to exceed everyone’s expectations of them every. single. day. because we were not given easy tasks at all. Everyone was eager to do more and did everything with an open heart, curiosity to learn, and never complained even when it would be so easy to give up.
Our Adventure Book 