This spring break, 23 University of Alabama students opted to spend their week of freedom at work. Beyond Bama, the UA alternative spring break program centered around community service, began in 1995 in the Center for Service and Leadership. This year’s two trips will be the first since the spring of 2020.
“In its heyday, we were doing four or five trips during spring break,” said Haley Carpenter, assistant director at the Center for Service and Leadership. “The first trips were local, and then over the years they expanded.”
Past Beyond Bama trips took students to international destinations like Ghana and the Dominican Republic as well as other domestic locations. Carpenter hopes to eventually build the program back to exceed the pre-pandemic participation highs.
Support from Dr. Steven Hood, vice president for student life, was vital in making Beyond Bama accessible to more students. “Each student that is participating applied for a travel grant,” Carpenter said. “We were able to award each student something to assist with the cost.”
Students this year had the option of going to Memphis or Orange Beach. In Memphis, local organization Serve 901 planned the week’s agenda in cooperation with community partners like Girls, Inc., a mobile food bank and an urban farm. In Orange Beach, local partners included Gulf State Park, Feeding the Gulf Coast and Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
Beyond Service
One thing that sets the trips apart is the emphasis on student leadership. This year, Carpenter arranged the destinations by reaching out to contacts maintained in the center’s records. Each trip had a student trip leader responsible for holding the itinerary — things like making sure people are accounted for, answering questions about the next day and making sure everyone is on the bus.
In the future, Carpenter hopes to restore the program’s original structure. Students will gain incredible experience with responsibility for choosing destinations, reaching out to potential partner organizations and doing the bulk of the planning.
“This year has been a good start, but I think we can get to a place where students are even more involved,” she said.
Neila Nene, a nursing major from Birmingham, went on the Orange Beach trip. She chose Beyond Bama for the opportunity to serve in a new place and along other students interested in giving back.
“While volunteering at Feeding the Gulf Coast, it surprised me how much work is done by volunteers,” she said. “I will remember the women at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab who volunteer almost three times a week to keep the Sea Lab in its best shape. They do it for the love of helping out.”
Kaleigh Oberg is a sophomore from Huntsville majoring in environmental science. She also chose Orange Beach and enjoyed the outdoor experiences at Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Gulf State Park. “I loved being able to see the impact we made in the short time we had at each place!” she said.
Even more than the work, Oberg said the part of the experience that affected her the most was building community with her fellow volunteers. Although she wouldn’t call herself an extrovert, she plans to be an assistant team leader with the CSL next semester, thanks to the confidence she gained with Beyond Bama.