Students on Spring Break holidays from the University of Alabama, USA, spent much of yesterday helping to paint sections of the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre, Mona, St. Andrew. Among them is Daryl Zanotelli (centre) who is on his second Spring Break trip to do volunteer work. - Junior DowieBy Omar Anderson,
Staff Reporter
SPRING-BREAKERS only visit Montego Bay and Negril each year to have fun! Right? Wrong!
On Saturday, 14 students from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa arrived in Kingston to have fun while doing volunteer work.
The Rotary Club of Kingston hosted the students, who worked throughout yesterday, and will continue today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Sir John Golding Rehabilitation Centre, Mona, St. Andrew.
Tomorrow the students will go to Hellshire Beach, St. Cath-erine, to clean up debris along the shore. They will do volunteer work on Thursday at the Kencot and Berean basic schools, Kingston, and will have a day off on Friday before returning to work the next day.
Unlike their counterparts in Western Jamaica who spend their time unwinding from a busy semester, these Alabama students are still focused on the classroom.
"For them, performing community service over the spring vacation is 10 per cent of their grades," said Valeria Phillips, director of the Office of Community Service and Volun-teerism at the University of Alabama.
The students are pursuing different degrees ranging from finance to computer engineering and health-care management, but they have chosen to do the course "Alternatives in Edu-cation and Spring Break."
Ms. Phillips and the students were feted on Sunday at the Kingston 8 home of Rotarian, Jimmy Bruce. She told The Gleaner Jamaica was chosen this year because Evan Duggan, a professor at the University of Alabama, is the brother of Astor Duggan, immediate past president of the Rotary Club of Kingston.
Additionally, she said, another professor at the university visits Jamaica regularly. "So we thought Jamaica would be a wonderful first international site," she said.
The students' ages range from 19 to 22 years and some told The Gleaner they were expecting this week to be very rewarding. They also explained why they chose to study aspects of volunteering.
"It's a rewarding course," said Daryl Zanotelli, 22, who is doing voluntary work for his second successive year. "It's a combination of academics and community service." He said he was part of a group of 12 students who visited Zellwood, Florida, last year and worked at a shelter for the homeless.
"We slept in a very small chapel with about 10 pews," Daryl said. "When we went there first, we were ready to go back home but at the end of the course we didn't want to leave," he said.
He said that over the next few days he intends to put some effort into brightening someone's life or give somewhere a facelift.
Jamal Oliver, 19, who is majoring in computer engineering, said he chose this course because he wanted to learn more about volunteerism. "I'm not only here to experience the culture of Jamaica, but to give service from an international level," he said.
In the meantime, officials of the Rotary Club of Kingston said they expect this programme to excel and contribute significantly to Jamaica's tourism product in the future.
"This has an awful lot of potential seeing it's the first time this university is trying it here," said Major-General Robert Neish, president-elect of the Rotary Club.
