UA Honors Students Come to Campus Early to Benefit Area Children, Schools, Parks

Editor’s Note: Media are invited to see the Alabama Action students in ‘action’ during a media availability day at Matthews Elementary School, 1225 Rice Mine Road, Northport, Thursday, Aug. 13, from 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – A record number of freshmen in The University of Alabama Honors College will come to campus a week early, Aug. 9-14, to take part in the service-learning projects Alabama Action and Outdoor Action to help the West Alabama community and a region of the Black Belt.

Some 115 freshman in the UA Honors College, 12 Coca-Cola scholars and 20 volunteers, along with 25 student leaders and three student co-directors, will work together on an Alabama Action project that combines service to the West Alabama community with enriching academic sessions taught by University professors and community leaders.

The 2009 program is the ninth annual Alabama Action project organized and carried out by UA honors students.

Alabama Action responds to the needs of the community and the opportunities to foster sustainable change. Each day of the weeklong program is divided between presentations/discussions and service projects (painting murals, building an outdoor classroom, landscaping and renovating schoolrooms) at under-funded public schools.

This year, the UA students will be working at Matthews Elementary School and Echols Middle School, both located in Northport and part of the Tuscaloosa County School System. Each student also works in a classroom partnered with one or two young students, participating in discussions and enrichment activities. Students can build relationships that last the duration of their time at the University by participating in mentoring programs after the Alabama Action week is over.

While the Alabama Action students are busy in the schools, another group of honors students will be spending the week on an environmental service project at Perry Lakes Park (in Alabama’s Black Belt region near Marion) as participants in the College’s Outdoor Action service-learning program.

Outdoor Action focuses on creating an awareness of environmental issues that affect the state and allows students to make a contribution through an environmental service project; this year that will be at Perry Lakes Park, located in one of the poorest counties in the state. Some 43 honors freshmen and eight student leaders will work at the park to extend a new hiking trail to a new area of the park, making access to Secret Lake possible for the first time. The students will also install benches and contribute to a number of other improvements to the park.

Throughout the week, the students will also participate in a canoe trip on the Sipsey River, fish seining on the Cahaba River and a Hurricane Creek clean-up and mapping project.

One of the goals of Outdoor Action is to demonstrate the correlation between biology, geography and environmental science with real conditions in the local environment. Hands-on field trips and experiments are designed to correspond with the lectures and readings that the students cover during the program.

Outdoor Action receives additional support from the Alabama Museum of Natural History and UA Outdoor Recreation.