Page 26 - 'Southern Magazine - Summer 2012

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southern
FEATURES
A Year in the Life
Service Learning
hat can I do to help?” is a question Kristin
Harper ’92, director of the college’s Bunting Center
for Engaged Study and Community Action, gets asked
often. And she’s glad. Last academic year, more than 1,000
Birmingham-Southern students engaged in service-learning
projects locally, nationally, and globally. BSC was listed
in
The Huffington Post
in June as one of “8 Great Schools
for Community Service.” Here are some of the college’s
community service highlights from the past year:
Tornado relief service days
Last summer, BSC
students and staff participated in three workdays
at the Christian Service Mission downtown. The
mission collected, stored, and sorted donations
from Birmingham citizens before shipping
donations to Tuscaloosa and other areas affected by
the storms of April 27, 2011.
Service in the city
To kick off the academic year,
the Bunting Center coordinated a city-wide service
day for BSC students and Birmingham nonprofit
organizations. The event took place the final day
of orientation and included nearly 300 students
serving at 22 Birmingham service agencies.
Ghana ExplorationTerm project
The college’s
Education Department and the Bunting Center
joined forces, taking 20 students to teach in
classrooms at the Bakpa Avedo Basic School in
Ghana, Africa, for 10 days. While the students
taught in the classrooms, two BSC professors
held trainings with the Ghanaian teachers, using
materials that had been purchased and would be
left there with the school.
W
Harper