Habitat for Humanity- A Transformation
The transformation of a destitute community into a welcoming neighborhood.
In the months leading up to my high school graduation, I could not help but look forward to finally moving to Athens, Georgia, and beginning my education at the University of Georgia. Anytime I came upon hardships during my senior year, I always thought about my eventual move as a way of pushing myself to go on. Luckily, I, along with 300 others, received the opportunity to begin my college career a month early by attending the Freshman College Summer Experience, or as most of us call it, Freshco.
Freshman College is an opportunity for upcoming freshmen to take classes and live on campus in order to have a smooth transition into the college atmosphere. On the second day of living here, I was given my class assignments: History 2111, UNIV 1103S, and UNIV 1103. I originally thought that most of my workload would be from History, but I came to learn that one of my UNIV classes would be strenuous for entirely different reasons.
Before attending Freshman College, I did not completely understand what the UNIV classes would entail. I thought they would simply give us tips for making it through college. On the very first day of my UNIV 1103S class, I realized I was completely wrong. Along with writing essays every week, my 1103S class required us to work with a service organization. My class was partnered up with Habitat for Humanity.
I had never worked with Habitat before attending Freshco, but I was excited for the opportunity. In my small town, Bainbridge, Georgia, we had very few service opportunities, so this work was a new experience for me.
On the first day of work with Habitat, I was not sure what to expect. When we drove up to the neighborhood, and saw the houses we would be working on, I was somewhat intimidated. There was obviously a lot of work to be done.
Although intimidating, it was also exciting to see what our class could do to help transform these houses into livable homes. The head of the project, Doug, immediately put us to work, but not before giving us a talk about what our work meant to him. In his eyes, we were giving homes to those who need it more than we could imagine. He said we were going to give a home to a single mother who otherwise might not have been able to afford it. He also believed we were making this community safer for everyone living in it.
Immediately after his opening speech, Doug began giving out job assignments. As he called out available tasks, I was shocked by what they were letting college freshman do. I ended up being in charge of scraping paint off of the tile floor, but most people had much more rigorous jobs. Quite a few people were sent to work digging ditches, and some were even on the roof busting in the rotted wood. Initially, I thought our jobs would be trivial, but most of my classmates were working alongside the experienced construction workers.
Every week we came back, we received new jobs and learned something new about the site, or about the volunteers we were with. Two of the volunteers who worked at the site everyday were from Germany. Unlike most of the men working, the two Germans were around our age. It is not too unusual to find foreign students on UGA’s campus, but these two friends were different. After speaking to both of them, I found out that they were in Athens specifically to work with Habitat for Humanity. The two friends took a gap year between high school and college, and came all the way to Athens, Georgia to volunteer.
Meeting all of the volunteers, and hearing about how they ended up working with Habitat for Humanity inspired me along with the rest of my class. Each volunteer gives away several hours a day to turn rotted houses into homes for people they do not know. Two of them not only gave up their time for Habitat, but flew to another country in order give a stranger a home.
I understand that this service opportunity was created in order to get the students of Freshman College to help out around their new town, but this service project impacted me beyond helping out the community. Before Freshman College, my knowledge of the homeless was narrow. I did not see poverty on a daily basis, so it did not affect me. After working with Habitat, I now understand the conditions numerous people are forced to live in, and I see the powerful impact renovating these houses has on a community. These destitute houses were once rotting, falling apart, and over run by insects and rodents. Now, because of Habitat for Humanity, 118 Magnolia Terrace is beginning to look a lot more welcoming and homey.
My time with Habitat for Humanity did more than make me want to pursue additional service work in my future. Working with Habitat cemented my interest in becoming a doctor someday. I have always looked to becoming a doctor as a way of giving back. Doctors serve anyone and everyone, and save lives every day. Although working with Habitat did not involve medicine, it gave me the chance to see how impoverished people in our world live. I know that being a doctor will not provide people a home, but I hope that my own form of service for this world will make a difference in someone’s life like the work Habitat did for an Athens citizen. One of my ultimate goals is to use my knowledge of medicine in a country that cannot afford healthcare. Perhaps my Habitat for Humanity in ten years will be working in Peru to assist those without proper medicine.
