Scott Ross is packing a hammer for spring break.
Ross, a microbiology junior, will join 40 students from MSU and 9,000 students from across the country on the Habitat for Humanity International’s Collegiate Challenge: Spring Break 2001.
The students will be on a mission to construct houses during trips to Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Virginia.
Ross, president of MSU’s Habitat for Humanity, will travel to Georgia with a group of 10 MSU students.
“It is an amazing experience,” he said. “You get together with about 100 other college kids. AmeriCorps volunteers help setup sights and you work all day building houses. The progress after a week is just amazing.”
Ross, who has traveled with Habit for Humanity in the past, said that it’s an educational and rewarding experience.
“It is a reward that comes from knowing that you did something good for other people,” he said. “It is not giving up our time, we have a great time. I don’t feel bad in the slightest.
“It is an amazingly exciting and empowering experience.”
Lauren Moran, said a year ago, she didn’t picture herself building homes in Louisiana during spring break. But now she’s ready to get start helping out.
“I think it is a really good opportunity to go down and see how other people live,” the animal science junior said. “It is a really good cause, there is no reason not to go down.”
The trip costs students $30,0 but the groups organize fundraisers.
Journalism junior Kurt Ludkeis excited about taking his first trip with Habit for Humanity during break.
“After they came back last year and I saw what a good time they had, I said ‘next year I am definitely going on a trip,’” he said.
Ludke, who is going to Virginia, said he expects the trip to be rewarding and fun.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” he said. “It seems like it will be a lot of fun. You get to work for four days, and the rest of the time we can do traveling and site seeing.”
Habitat for Humanity advisor Kent Workman has participated on trips including St. Louis, West Virginia, Georgia and Florida. He said the trips benefit the participants.
“I think it is great because MSU has enough students here that we should have a lot of trips going out,” Workman said. “It is a good experience for faculty, staff and students to have. It offers a great alternative and way to have fun and do a service project. It is a really meaningful experience.”
Students from 400 colleges, universities and high schools will go to more than 175 sites nationwide between February 18 and April 14.
