UConn students travel cross-country to make a difference

While most Uni-versity of Connecticut students took their month-long winter break to relax and unwind after their fall semester, others took volunteering to a new level and traveled across the country to lend a helping hand.

And it was an experience they will never forget.

“I would never trade this experience for anything,” said senior Jamie Melnick.
Six members of UConn Hillel, a campus-wide and national Jewish student organization, took flight and traveled to California for a week-long service project as part of an annual event called “alternative break.”

Fifty Hillel members nationwide, including students from University of Delaware, Hofstra University, Kent State, College of Staten Island, Hunter College and Broward and Palm Beach College, participated in the service project.

Students teamed up with City Year, a non-religious organization, to make improvements to an after-school facility in Santa Monica, Calif.

Melnick and sophomore Ally Krusansky said they had a once-in-a-lifetime experience that was worth the layers of paint and hours of work.

More than 1,000 hours of service were logged by students during the week as they painted murals, repaired building walls, constructed skate park ramps, landscaped, built an amphitheater and interacted with children in the community.

UConn students spent three days drawing and painting murals that were hung on walls of the facility’s basketball court.

“As we stood on the basketball court before our final departure from the Boys and Girls Club, I looked around and took in the beautiful atmosphere we created for these children,” said Melnick.

For Melnick, it was that moment that made her realize the impact she made on children who face the difficulties of living in the city.

“It was clear at this moment that we had made an impact on this center and the children who spend time there every day,” she said.

Kruzansky said she not only enjoyed her time painting and working with other students, but she was able to reflect on her hours of hard work and commitment.

According to Kruzansky, each workday ended with “reflection time” for students and other participants to talk about their experience.

“At the end of our long days of service work we would have reflection time with our group and talk about ways to apply what we learned and that being a Jewish teen isn’t just about going to synagogue,” she said. “It’s about making a difference in your community.”

Both Kruzansky and Melnick said they would recommend the alternative break to any student and they hope to participate in the event again in the future.

“We may never know exactly how each child felt the moment they walked into the freshly painted building or outside to the new colorfully decorated basketball court,” said Melnick. “That’s not what is important.”

Melnick said the only important part of the experience was making a difference in a small pocket of the world.