Talk to an advisor (9 AM-9 PM EST): 866-442-6062

Talk to an advisor (9 AM-9 PM EST): 866-925-2803

"Habitat for Humanity. Poverty housing. Raising Money. Thirty-one College students. Churches hosting. Seventy miles a day...[These] are words I've said many times," explains Jessica Cohen, a senior at Yale University, New Haven, CT. And with each time she says them, she remembers how amazing her Habitat for Humanity involvement was.

Jessica, along with peers from Yale and other colleges, spent this past summer riding the 63-day, 4,000-mile Habitat Bike Challenge. Their goal? To raise $150,000 to help the non-profit organization eliminate poverty housing and develop communities for those in need. Riders set out from New Haven, CT, with two groups of over 30 students finishing in Seattle, WA, and San Francisco, CA. The student bikers started at the break of dawn, and pedaled over 60 miles a day, stopping for lunch and conversation with people along the way.

When the students weren't cycling across the country, they were working on Habitat homes. Mary Dishman, a sophomore at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was particularly touched when she met a potential Habitat homeowner and her son.

"[It] was really inspiring because it showed us that we were actually making a difference in people's lives," says Mary. "There was a real cause and reason behind all the pain and miles of cycling."

The pain she speaks of came from the broken bikes, bruised backsides, exhaustion, and direction difficulties. Yet for Yale junior and leader on the trip, Rachel Serlen, the biking excursion helped keep her eyes on the prize. "We knew that as we pedaled, we were raising money to [help] build at least one house in one neighborhood for one family" she says.

For Yale senior, Aaron Lemon-Strauss, it was a reminder that students aren't the only ones sacrificing for this worthwhile cause. "It amazed me that in every town we stopped, there was a church or community center willing to house and feed 31 college students," Aaron shares. "That made all of us feel really lucky to be representing such a great organization. We'll keep on pedaling."

To find out how you can get involved in Habitat for Humanity, log onto http://www.habitat.org/youthprograms/.

Other Students Raised Awareness Through HABIFEST 2002
Talk about raising the roof on poverty housing! Over 1,000 Colleges and Universities participated in the nationwide awareness campaign HABIFEST 2002. It was the first day ever set aside for students to highlight the worldwide need for simple, decent, and affordable housing.

"We were excited that our young people wanted to get involved in helping families in their communities that are less fortunate," says Millard Fuller, founder and president of Habitat for Humanity International. "We know that with the help of today's high school and college students, we can eliminate substandard housing from the face of the earth."

Krista Padgett, Habitat Campus Chapters & Youth Program manager for the Central Atlantic Region, says that involvement with Habitat for Humanity International educates students about urban and rural poverty, and empowers them to help people. "All students need to believe -- absolutely - that they can make a difference."

Nearly 100 college campuses in the United States participated in the event...

• Students at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), Augustana College (Rock Island, IL), SUNY (New Paltz, NY), Boston University (Boston, MA), and Adrian College (Adrian, MI), slept outside in cardboard and plywood shacks to show how hundreds of millions of people around the world are forced to live every day.


• Messiah College students in Grantham, PA, gave late-night tours of nearby Harrisburg to show the severity of the housing and homelessness problem there.


• Mercer University students in Atlanta, GA, held a gingerbread house-building contest to fun-up their fundraising efforts.

http://www.collegesurfing.com/content
Robyn Tellefsen is a frequent contributor to The CollegeBound Network. Learn more about finding a school that's right for you.

Sound Off! Post Your Comments