The benefits of volunteering: 鶹ƵAPP students lend a hand in rebuilding North Carolina community
For seven 鶹ƵAPP students, spring break wasn’t about vacationing — it was about rolling up their sleeves and rebuilding lives.
Through the Office of Civic and Community Engagement’s Alternative Spring Break program, 鶹ƵAPP staff members Erika Sengstack and Jacob Johnson led a group of students that teamed up with Baptists on Mission to restore homes impacted by Hurricane Helene’s floods in Canton, North Carolina. The students spent the week assisting with construction and repair tasks such as drywall installation, painting and flooring.
“The optimism these students continued to carry after three days of intense manual labor was incredibly heartwarming.” Sengstack said. “I hope they feel inspired to give back to their own communities in new and different ways.”
The Canton community was one of many areas severely impacted by the historic 2024 hurricane season and has been on a long road to recovery. Some students have experienced the effects of flooding and extreme weather firsthand. For others, the trip was a vivid reminder of how climate-related disasters affect local communities.
“This kind of work hits close to home,” Johnson said. “My hope is that this trip motivated these students to consider how their future careers could support others when these kinds of disasters inevitably occur.”
Along the way, they also had the chance to meet homeowners and hear firsthand how the storm and ongoing recovery efforts have affected their lives — from delays in government funding and contractor price gouging to temporary housing while waiting for their homes to be rebuilt or replaced.
“I felt satisfied with the work we did, especially after hearing about some of the difficulties that these families faced,” said Kylin Jia, class of 2025. “We may not have been as efficient as a team of professionals, but I was proud of our finished work and the minimal waste we produced.”
Experiential learning and community engagement are cornerstones of the 鶹ƵAPP Experience, and trips like this offer students an important lens through which to understand those values. By stepping outside of the classroom and into a community in need, these students gained valuable insights not only into disaster relief but also into the power of empathy, service and collective action.
“I think that the trip has further cemented my belief that using your own hands to serve a community is much more powerful than any form of philanthropy or advocacy,” Jia said. “While I do know that these are both essential parts of any volunteer organization, I have found that being present at the site of a crisis is the gold standard for service.”
This program — and others like it during the 2024–2025 academic year — were made possible by EngageKY’s Volunteer Generation grant.
