By Shala Carlson

Campus Chapters

Good Neighbors

Habitat for Humanity was a lesson that Daniel Hall learned in school. The recent graduate started out studying mechanical engineering at Georgia Southern University, but made a change early on. "I kind of got tired of sitting in front of a computer," he says. "It was seeing the construction students out and about and hearing about them working on Habitat houses--I changed majors immediately, and I've been involved ever since."

That involvement has taken an unexpected turn. As a construction management student at Georgia Southern, Hall's coursework included frequent visits to Habitat for Humanity Bulloch County build sites in surrounding Statesboro, visits that served as lab work toward course credit. His experiences also served to set up his first career move: In December, Hall became construction manager for that same Habitat affiliate that he had helped as a student.

Universities and colleges around the world marshal student volunteers for Habitat projects and promote involvement through programs such as campus chapters, student-led and -initiated organizations that partner with their local Habitat affiliates. Schools like Georgia Southern and the local affiliates, however, are finding additional ways to bring together higher learning and higher purpose, incorporating Habitat involvement into course work and curricula across the academic spectrum. In fields ranging from the construction trades to marketing and even physical education, students gain much-needed hands-on experience and course credits, affiliates benefit from the extra efforts and awareness, and more families find their way to simple, decent, affordable housing.

The most obvious advantage for the students is the educational component. "The most valuable thing, as a student, was being able to see the structure going up in front of us week to week," Hall says. "We could see it gradually progress and let it sink in and really understand the principles and concepts that went into the house."

At the same time, though, other things also were making an impression. Hall's first real exposure to Habitat was through his Wood Structures class, he says, and that was the case for most of his fellow students. "The students were kind of enlightened," he says. "There were a lot who had a different perspective after working on the houses and seeing the homeowners out here. They came to understand that a Habitat house isn't a giveaway [but] a helping hand."

Since 2003, says Habitat Bulloch County executive director Vicki Davis, the students' helping hands--15 to 20 students once or twice a week during a semester--have played a big role in keeping the affiliate's construction schedule on target. "One Saturday's work day is scheduled to finish doing x, y and z, and if it doesn't get finished, the class has been able to come in and get everything prepped, so that the next Saturday, the volunteers can come back out, and everything is ready to go."

Looking ahead, Davis hopes that students will be open to a Habitat future, as Hall was. "I'm hoping that when they graduate and go off to work, they will be involved with Habitat in some way, or at least know enough to say, 'That's a good program. Let's help out if we can.'"

In British Columbia, Pauline Stevenson has a similar vision of simultaneously building houses and building Habitat's future. The president of Excel Career College, Stevenson approached longtime friend Jon Toogood, founder and leader of Habitat for Humanity Vancouver Island North, to forge a partnership between the affiliate and the students in Excel's construction program.

"From a purely business standpoint, I'm always trying to figure out how I can provide my students with the best possible experience," says Stevenson, who serves alongside Toogood on the city of Courtenay's affordable housing task force. "My first conclusion was that we would build things and take them apart, build them again and take them apart again. But there's not a whole lot of motivation there. Suddenly all of my hats came together, and I thought, 'Let's build some real houses for real people.'

"I look out my window, and it's beautiful," Stevenson explains. "People are flocking here; there's a good quality of life. It's just so fluffy and middle-class and utopian, in many ways. And yet there is a crisis.

"We have families without a roof over their head, and there is zero--absolutely zero--percent vacancy in affordable housing.

"So it's a crisis. It's not a crisis for millions, but it's a crisis for many."

Stevenson's plan is to help solve that crisis by having Excel construction students--approximately 30 builders a year--participate in Habitat construction, deconstructions and smaller projects such as garden sheds and playhouses that can be built out of ReStore materials and sold to raise funds. "That's a great learning activity, too," says Stevenson. "And the fact that we get to use their materials--because it goes back to them worth something--it doesn't limit what the class can come up with creatively because there is no limit to the materials. If we can create something that has value and that's a learning activity, there's a huge benefit for Habitat, but a HUGE benefit for us."

The benefit, though, goes even further in Stevenson's eyes. "I'd like all of the graduates who move into the trades from Excel Career College to have a legacy," she says. "To drive by and say, 'I built that house. I know the family that moved into it. And that inspired me.'"

(continued)