Black Belt Experience: UA Students Work with Perry County Communities

Editors/Producers Note: Media are invited between 9 a.m. and noon Monday, May 18, to the Ralph Engle Memorial Arena as University Fellows students engage in a renovation project. For details on the project, contact Richard LeComte, media relations, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Throughout May, The University of Alabama’s University Fellows are engaging in a number of community service initiatives in Marion and Perry County as part of the annual Black Belt Experience.

The projects include a youth leadership council, a photography exhibition featuring work by the region’s most celebrated photographers, and the renovation of the Ralph Eagle Memorial Arena.

The group consists of 23 students, six student leaders and four staff members working on 14 different Black Belt projects.

The Black Belt is an area of central Alabama named for its dark, rich soil. The program, in its seventh year, is part of the UA Honors College’s 57 Miles partnership with Perry County.

The students will engage with a wide cross-section of the population, the community’s organizations and businesses. Among the projects are:

Eternal Moments: Photographs of the South – The photography exhibition’s opening reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 15, at the Smith Building Gallery.

Gallery talks will be given at 6:30 pm by Chip Cooper, UA’s Honors College Artist-in-Residence, and Lauren Henkin, the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Do Good Fund, which works to make museum-quality contemporary Southern photography broadly accessible through nontraditional venues.

The Smith Building Gallery is at 301 Washington Street. For more information, go to http://www.thesmithbuildingartgallery.com/.

Play at Perry Lakes – Students will work to stimulate economic growth in Marion by creating a cleaner, safer and more fun environment at Perry Lakes Park, as well as raising awareness of its unique educational and recreational opportunities. The park is located at 175 Perry St.

Healthy Eating – Students will conduct community and school workshops to provide Marion residents with more knowledge about healthy diet and lifestyle choices that can reduce chronic disease and obesity. They will also work with local farmers in revamping the Perry County Farmers Market to offer a greater variety of produce and specialty products.

Child Development Initiative – Students will conduct a survey to assess and evaluate the awareness of child development in Marion. The results will be used in promoting child development education within rural populations and grant writing for the establishment of child development centers.

Marion Youth Council – Students will help area youth to hone their leadership skills, express ideas about their community in the form of legislation, foster civic engagement and develop relationships between Francis Marion and Marion Academy students. The council will be held at Judson College, 302 Bibb St.

Ralph Eagle Memorial Arena Renovation Project – Students will renovate the concession stand and restroom of the rodeo arena and community event facility to create greater accessibility for its public use. The arena is located just off of Highway 14 in Marion.

For a complete list of projects, contact Brianna Adams, University Fellows, at bladams1@crimson.ua.edu or 972/358-9551.

The University Fellows Experience is a community of elite scholars from diverse disciplines who share a similar passion of being change agents through commitment to leadership and service. Following the classical purpose of education — the production of good citizens — the University Fellows Experience strives to prepare the most able and dedicated students at UA for remarkable lives of leadership in, and service to, their community, state, nation and world.

The students, all of whom are enrolled in UA’s Honors College, spent the academic year researching issues affecting the Black Belt and developing programs to help address some of those issues.