BSCI Service Learning Helped Build, Repair Housing for Southern Families

A group of construction workers in orange vests and hard hats assemble a wooden structure near a lake, with a ladder and tools in use.

Students in the McWhorter School of Building Science (BSCI) applied their construction knowledge to five Service Learning projects this spring, continuing Auburn’s outreach commitment to assisting community non-profits.

As part of the School’s Service Learning program, the students—working in groups under the direction of BSCI faculty—gained hands-on experience while helping address the critical needs of organizations and individuals.

Senior Lecturer Jonathan Tucker oversaw three projects in Alabama. His first team worked with The Way 2 Serve to design and build a wheelchair ramp and front porch for a mobile home in Opelika. Helping a neighbor in need, the students also repaired and sealed broken windows and fixed roof leaks.

Several people wearing construction gear work with lumber outdoors at a Habitat for Humanity site, with a branded trailer and trees visible in the background.
Students installed Hardie siding, trim, soffits and an awning on a house for Auburn-Opelika Habitat for Humanity.

Continuing to serve Alabama’s families, another team collaborated with Alabama Rural Ministries, working on a house in Tuskegee. The team repaired the damaged fascia, caulked and painted the soffit, gable siding and railings—as well as siliconed the windows and installed a new galvalume metal roof.

Tucker’s third team travelled north to Camp Hill, to work on the Alabama Sheriff’s Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch. The team designed and built a covered storage center for the facility’s kayaks and canoes with a closet for life jackets and paddles.

A construction worker wearing a hard hat and safety vest uses a level on the exterior wall of a house while standing on a ladder.
Opportunities to serve and learn with organizations such as Auburn-Opelika Habitat for Humanity are essential to the Building Science program.
Two people wearing hard hats and orange safety vests operate a power saw to cut wood outdoors on a grassy field, with trees and vehicles in the background.
The team designed and built a covered storage center for the facility’s kayaks and canoes with a closet for life jackets and paddles.
A man in a hard hat and brown jacket kneels and uses a measuring tool on wood boards at a construction site, while others stand nearby smiling.
From painting to constructing to installing, students learned crucial skills while giving back.

Senior Lecturer Hunter McGonagill took a team to Jonestown, Miss., where BSCI students continued working with BGM Ministries. After years of planning, the organization began construction on a 10-lot subdivision of affordable housing. Twelve BSCI students worked on the first three new homes, including framing, window and door installation, sheetrock, paint and more.

A group of people stands in front of the Jonestown Hope Center building beside a truck labeled Auburn McWhorter School of Building Science and a car, under a clear blue sky.
BSCI students continued their work with BGM Ministries in Jonestown, Miss.
Two construction workers prepare to install a window into a framed opening on a building covered with a PermaPRO weather barrier.
Students built affordable housing with BGM Ministries in Mississippi.

“They did a lot of work in one week,” McGonagill said. “Equally important, they were able to spend time at the newly completed community baseball field, where they were able to play baseball with the local kids and share with them why we would show up and work in their community all the way from Auburn, Alabama. The trip was a grand success in many ways.”

Four people wearing hard hats work on the exterior of a house under construction; two stand on ladders near a door, attaching material just below the roof.
McGonagill and Bugg led the students in completing work on a house for Auburn-Opelika Habitat for Humanity.

McGonagill also teamed up with Service Learning Chair Alan Bugg to lead a team through a project installing Hardie siding, trim, soffits and an awning on a house for Auburn-Opelika Habitat for Humanity.

See more in:
Outreach, Service Learning, Student Experience

Related people:
Jonathan Tucker, Hunter McGonagill, Alan Bugg