Three Tusculum College students and two staff members veered away from the typical Spring Break plans this year, choosing instead an “Alternative Spring Break” that included working in soup kitchens and immersing themselves in the plight of being homeless.
Students Alicja Dembna, Ashley Bradford and Kristy Crawley, along with Tusculum College staff members Wanda Rahm and Kathy Cuff spent Spring Break (March 6-8) in Nashville working at the Center for Student Missions.
Activities for the three -day trip including serving and working with clients at two homeless soup kitchens, as well as helping to set up for meal serving and cleaning up after meal service. The students also participated in a Homeless Immersion experience.
“This was a very powerful and impactful experience for all of us,” said Rahm, administrative assistant for the Center for Civic Advancement. “For a break, we took the students out for Ethiopian food one night, which was a new experience for all of them.”
Students also spent one morning with three homeless individuals whom they invited to breakfast at a local McDonald’s. “They ate together and had a very interesting conversation,” said Rahm.
The Tusculum College trip was part of a national program called the Center for Student Missions. The CSM experience is built toward sustainable service projects and plug students into churches and organizations that have a long history of service in their neighborhoods. Each year, CSM provides more than 300,000 hours of volunteer work to these ministries across North America.
