Home Work for Habitat (continued)

As Habitat supporters know, there's more than one way to get a house built. Many schools are finding ways to academically encourage the involvement of students in programs other than skilled construction trades.

New Hampshire's Dartmouth University, for example, offers students a PE credit, one of three needed to graduate from the Ivy League school, for volunteering with Upper Valley Habitat for Humanity at least 13 hours in a term. The program was suggested by the students themselves. "Because students have so many time commitments, we thought it would be a great idea to allow students to do service and get credits at the same time," says student chair Jennie Park.

"Because Habitat sitework is physical activity and requires no previous sitework experience, it seemed to be a natural fit," says Dartmouth adviser Ashley Halpin. "Although Habitat has not had trouble recruiting volunteers each week, the class offers a broader and sometimes more consistent base of volunteers." More than 100 students signed up for the Habitat PE credit the first time it was offered; subsequent terms have capped the class at 10 students to keep it logistically feasible.

Other programs pursue other avenues. A business management lab at Virginia's Sweet Briar College has adopted Amherst County Habitat for Humanity. In the most recent lab, students divided into three teams to spearhead three separate fund-raising and awareness-building events over the course of the semester. Each team member served a function, covering everything from accounting and event planning to public relations.

"The purpose of the Habitat for Humanity project," says senior and spring 2007 lab CEO Michelle Raymond, "is to give students an introductory learning experience simulating real-life management practices in the business world. The class's contribution to Amherst County Habitat for Humanity is an investment in our community."

It's also an investment in the professional development of each participant. "From a faculty member's point of view, it was an exciting semester," says economics and business professor Tom Loftus. "The partnership with Habitat provides great motivation and incentive for the students, and the lab provides real-world experiences."

In addition to the business management's lab involvement, another group of Sweet Briar students has been working on an economic impact survey to measure the different ways Habitat has positively impacted the county, researching the effects on the tax base, the impacts on volunteers and participants, and the lowering of social costs. "It was such a wonderful experience for the kids to actually get their hands on a project and build research skills and know that it's going to make a difference," says Melody Gotwalt, the economics and business instructor spearheading the survey.

Along the same lines, select University of Colorado at Boulder freshmen--a group of scholars from a variety of disciplines that is designated as the Presidents Leadership Class with a special focus on the theory and practice of leadership--devoted a semester of community service last spring to Flatirons Habitat for Humanity. School representatives approached executive director Paul Casey about creating internships for PLC participants. "To have a nonprofit open its doors to 43 very bright, very motivated students all at one time is very unusual and very brave," says PLC executive director Barbara Volpe. "I believe that in the period of one college semester, our students were able to make a very solid contribution to Habitat; Habitat certainly made a contribution to the leadership development of our students."

"The challenge was how to accommodate that many people," Casey says. "We didn't have a building opportunity, but we set up different project areas and created a menu of useful projects."That menu was as varied as the interests of the students themselves. One group focused on marketing plans and even collection for the affiliate's thrift store, arranging for Habitat to pick up the more than 10,000 pounds of student clothing and articles left in the dorms at the end of the semester. Other students planned and produced a benefit concert. Several interns produced a homeowners' association manual for the affiliate, while another compiled a list of interfaith groups in the area--"an array we would not see in our church list, per se." One group began developing a new design for the affiliate's Web site, a design still in the implementation stages.

These, says Casey, are concrete examples of the partnership's immediate benefits. The biggest blessings, however, await. "You never know, projecting out, what the exact outcomes will be, but I have a feeling that this will be a ripple effect," he says. "I had an opportunity to get in front of a large group of people that are clearly going to go on and do very good things in their lives and to tell them a little bit about how Habitat really provides such a tremendous vehicle for social change. I see the possibility of benefits that might not be here yet."

Additional reporting by Rebekah Daniel