BSCI Students Donate Time, Expertise with Service Learning Projects

From projects at home on The Plains to far away in Quito, Ecuador, the students—working in groups of 10 under the direction of BSCI faculty—gained hands-on experience while helping address the critical needs of organizations and individuals.

Senior Lecturer Jonathan Tucker organized three of the projects in increasingly far distances from Auburn.

One group of students headed to Opelika to continue work on a house with the Auburn-Opelika Habitat for Humanity that BSCI students framed in the fall. The team ordered and installed Hardie cementations lap siding, trim, fascia and soffit boards, ushering the project into its final stages of construction.

Another group of students travelled north to Camp Hill, Ala., to work on the Alabama Sheriff’s Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch. The team designed and built a 14-ft x 20-ft free standing lean-to carport with a Galvalume metal roof off the back of one of the cottages. Additionally, they constructed three 5-ft x 14-ft chicken tractors on site.

“Service Learning showed me the importance of serving others through construction,” said BSCI student Powell Gordon, who worked on the carport addition. “It also helped me practice teamwork skills that are essential in the construction industry.”

Tucker’s third team headed to Cutuglagua, Ecuador, for a week, continuing the school’s ongoing service in Quito. Partnering with Servants in Faith & Technology (SIFAT), the 18-member group participated in the ongoing construction of a church’s activity building, pouring concrete footings, columns and a raised entry slab.

“Service Learning in Quito didn’t just open my eyes to another culture,” said trip participant Colby Wright. “It opened my heart. It changed how I see the world, and how I want to move through it.”

“My time in Quito was more than construction—it was reconstruction,” Wright continued. “It opened my eyes to new truths, and my heart to a world bigger than my own.”

Nearer to home, Associate Professor Darren Olsen coordinated a service project with The Way 2 Serve. The students demolished and replaced a 14-ft x 10-ft deck for Auburn homeowner Pat Jordan. Helping a neighbor in need, the students also repaired a retaining wall and pressure washed the home.

The fifth project, led by Senior Lecturer Hunter McGonagill, took place in Jonestown, Miss., where BSCI students gained onsite experience while helping a rural community with less than 1,000 residents construct an ancillary building for new ball fields with BGM Ministries.

“Whether the project is local or in South America, the Service Learning program gives the students hands-on experience while expanding Auburn’s outreach mission,” Tucker said.