Students Mollie Messmer, Eden Ellison and Krystal Hale sort books in the Books for Africa warehouse in Atlanta.

Common Partners students pose for a picture during their spring service trip to Atlanta.

Habib Sanogo helps clean debris from the yard of an elderly woman on the last day of the spring service trip.

Students Serve in Atlanta as Part of MLK Day

Union College’s Common Partners program took more than 20 students to Atlanta for a spring service trip over Martin Luther King weekend.

The trip was organized by Union sophomore Shawn Spoon, a Service Scholar at the college.

The students arrived in Atlanta on Sat., Jan. 16 and worked with Books for Africa, which sends two to three million books each year to the continent. Union’s students helped sort and pack books in the organization’s warehouse.

On Sunday, the group was treated to Brazilian cuisine at an area restaurant and had the opportunity to network with alumna Lisa Jordan. Jordan works as a higher education marketing consultant in the Atlanta area.

The next day, students attended a freedom rally coordinated by Hands On Atlanta at Morehouse Medical School. The rally featured African drumming, a conversation with U.S. Representative John Lewis and a time of remembrance for King.

After the rally, the Common Partners students divided their energies between two volunteer projects in the city. While one group cleaned debris from an elderly woman’s yard, another helped with a cleanup project at a local amphitheatre.

Common Partners is Union’s service-learning organization, which links students with service opportunities that enhance the college learning experience, help shape strong community leaders, and provide needed services for the region and beyond. The organization is home to both the Service Scholars program, funded by Union College, and the Bonner Scholars program, made possible by the Corella and Bertram F. Bonner Foundation. Both service programs offer scholarships to students in exchange for their work and leadership in community service. Union is one of only 27 colleges in the nation to be awarded a Bonner Scholars program.
 

February 1, 2010

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