A group of nine Elizabethtown College students and two staff members traveled throughout Alabama and Georgia for the Center for Community and Civic Engagement’s (CCCE) annual Spring Break Service Trip. Students served with Habitat for Humanity Tuscaloosa and had the opportunity to expand their knowledge about the Civil Rights movement through visits to various museums and institutions.
Etown students work on a home build site for Habitat for Humanity.
While with Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit organization working with communities to provide housing to those in need, the group worked on a home build site, where they painted and installed siding and roofing.
“This was a time of reflection and encouraged intentional strategies for each student’s career path as they go beyond Elizabethtown College into the world,” Elizabethtown College Director of the CCCE Javita Thompson said. “This was a time for students to both serve the community and learn about the actions that have taken place over time to provide some small but meaningful progressions in our society.”
The Blue Jays traveled to multiple historical sites to learn more about the civil rights movement. While in Alabama, they visited Tuscaloosa, Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham. On the first day of the trip, the group spent the day in Atlanta, Ga. at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights to explore the struggle for civil and human rights both in the U.S. and abroad.
Throughout the week, the group also toured the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, the Ancient African and Enslavement Museum, The Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
“Living the College’s Educate for Service motto has allowed me to add another layer of depth to the work I have already been pursuing the past few years,” Daniel Marshall ’25, a Secondary Social Studies Education major said. “Being able to work outside of my community and help others in other parts of the country is an amazing experience and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Group members also visited several historic sites, including a walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where the Blood Sunday protest of 1965 occurred, as well as the 16th St. Baptists church where four girls were murdered in a bombing in 1963.
“I had never explored the destinations we traveled to before, and the privilege allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and learn not just on my own, but alongside other members of Etown,” Kyla Jackson ’26 said.
