USI Student support program’s spring recess combined history and service

About 18 students in University Division’s Student Support Services (SSS) program spent spring recess in Memphis, Tennessee, where they visited historic sites and performed service projects.

While in Memphis, the students toured the National Civil Rights Museum (formerly the Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated); Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum; and The BRIDGES Center, a community outreach center.

For their day of service, half of the USI students spent a day at St. Jude’s Hospital helping with children’s craft projects while the other half cleared brush at Shelby Farms Park, a nature preserve within the city limits.

Two of the students on the spring recess trip were Amanuel Medhane, a sophomore special education major from Indianapolis, and Ross Gentry, a junior elementary education major from Jasper, Indiana.

The Civil Rights Museum and Slave Haven made an impression on Medhane, who also runs track and cross country at USI. “The slaves had to wear bells around their necks, and they would fill the bells with mud so they wouldn’t make noise as they tried to escape,” he said. “Seeing things first-hand opened my eyes. Even though it was many years ago, more people need to know about these things. I’d love to go back and learn more.”

Gentry agreed. “It was an eye-opener,” he said. “You read about the Underground Railroad, but you don’t fully understand it, and when you see the house and where they stayed, it is a very tight space. It makes it more than text on a page.”

Gentry was impressed by the environmentally-conscious design of The BRIDGES Center, the first Green commercial building in Memphis. “They supply two-third of the energy themselves. They have solar panels and a solar water heater, a parking lot on the roof that is light-colored to reflect heat and light, a garden on the roof, and the architecture is designed to take the best advantage of sunlight. And the building itself is recyclable because it’s framed in steel instead of wood.”

SSS, one of eight grant-funded programs offered through the U.S. Department of Education, is helping motivate 140 eligible USI students to successfully complete their degrees. The program provides students free comprehensive services through classroom instruction, academic skill development, academic assistance and career development, personal and financial aid counseling, and experiences designed to enhance the collegiate experience.

Gentry serves as Medhane’s mentor through the program. “We are here to help mentees be more successful in college,” Gentry said. “We meet four hours a week and do different activities.”

Medhane said the mentor relationship with Gentry, as well as assistance from SSS staff Bradley Bates, academic counselor, and Amanda Duvall, supervisor of student mentoring and learning initiatives, are helping him in his studies. “It’s helping me be a better student. I was the type of guy who just got by in high school. Brad encouraged me to join the program, and I’m happy I did because my grades are getting better and I’m more involved in my classes.”

“They helped me, too,” Gentry said. “I was struggling before. My grades weren’t nearly as good, and I wasn’t involved. I ended up getting my best grades ever last semester – straight A’s. That never happens to me.”

Both students appreciated the fact that the trip gave them the opportunity to get to know other students in the SSS program. Personal relationships developed though the program strengthen the connection with USI, Gentry said. “I have two mentees, and we play basketball, rock climb, and play disc golf. The social relationships make you want to stay. I started college at another school. It was a great school, but I wasn’t as connected.”