Appalachia spends spring break in service

It is 6 p.m. on Sunday and there is an exodus across campus. Duke is just beginning to pick apart the Boston College defense in Durham, N.C., but still they come. Music, singing, and clapping pour out of the Eagle's Nest. Trip leaders form a tunnel to welcome participants into the crowded room. Over 500 people will attend tonight's meeting, far exceeding the 323-person capacity of the Eagle's Nest. This is a meeting of the Appalachia Volunteers, a gathering of the campus' largest student organization.

Since October, this group has been meeting weekly to hear speakers, watch films, and reflect upon their impending trips to obtain at least a rudimentary understanding of the places they will be visitng. This is a part of the Appalachia mission: to learn about the realities of poverty in the United States, discuss the injustices of entrenched poverty, and consider the relationship between faith and social justice throughout the year.

The exodus across campus prefigures a larger exodus starting this Saturday, when approximately 600 students will staff the 36 Appalachia placements in disparate places from Wilmington, Del., to New Orleans, La.

The program's journey from 12 volunteers in 1978 to the enormous organization it is today has not been without its growing pains, however. It has faced criticism for everything from the motives of the participants, to its price, to the campus social scene surrounding the trips.

In talking with administrators and participants of the program, it became clear that the program has many of the advantages and defects that one would expect from a large organization.

"I think it can be very hard to have a really great educational experience, no matter how great our speakers may be, crammed into a room with that many people," said Tammy Liddell, Appalachia's faculty adviser. "The willingness of the participants makes it work - they are willing to accept this fate and accept the realities of it by listening and participating while keeping things mostly orderly."

Problems aside, the reach of the program is enormous. Dispersing a multitude of students across the eastern United States, the Appalachia Volunteers have a profound ability to both touch lives in a variety of settings and the opportunity to experience entrenched social and political problems, from urban poverty in Cleveland, Ohio, to disaster relief in Pass Christian, Miss.

All this traveling doesn't come cheap. According to the Rev. Jim Erps, S.J., the director of Campus Ministry, the budget budget of the program hovers around $320,000, most of which is raised by the students.

Despite the high cost of the trips, Erps defends the expenditure on the basis of the long-range return.

"We recognize some of our graduates bility when they go out into the world," Erps said. "As BC graduates, for them to have a firsthand experience of poverty, that is an extremely valuable part of their experience. That wouldn't be accomplished by simply cutting a check [to these places]."

As a predominantly underclassman organization, Appalachia can serve as an early introduction to the culture of service at BC.

Immersed in a Culture of Service Rev. Jim Fleming, S.J., the assistant to the Vice President for University Mission and Ministry, has researched service organizations for his doctorate in policy analysis and contends that a vibrant culture of service exists at BC.

"In 2001 on the freshman survey, 50 percent of the students coming into college said [they intended] to do community service. By the time they graduated, 76 percent said they had done community service. That's an unexpected increase of 26 percent, a quarter of the class!" said Fleming. "One quarter of the entire student body didn't think they were going to do something, then came here and did it. What got a quarter of the entire class to change its mind? That is what I call this culture of service.

"Besides courses, the next most common experience at Boston College is volunteering. You know what the third one is? The Plex: intramurals or club sports."

As the largest service organization on campus, Appalachia is intimately tied to this culture of service. With no application process, the organization is open to absolutely anybody willing to make the commitment to attend the weekly Sunday meetings. This provides a large group of students the opportunity to come to a greater awareness of social problems.

What is particularly important, said Jenn Arens, the Appalachia community outreach coordinator and A&S '07, is the program's ability to take people with different levels of social awareness and provide them with both exposure to information about the issues and a shared experience of service.

"When you have a lot of people on campus who have had these experiences and know a lot more than you do [about social justice], it can be very intimidating. You might be like, 'Oookay, I'm not one of those social justice people, that's not my scene because I don't know about this,'" said Arens. "There is enough flexibility in Appalachia for people to learn. Campus is too easily split up into the people who know and who care about things and the people who don't. That division is really negative because we should all be trying to foster a positive and personal learning experience for everybody. You have to try to reach the most people possible and encourage people to experience things on their own but not in a way they are going to be thought of as stupid or unfeeling."

Shannon Keating, co-coordinator of the Appalachia program and LSOE '07, said that she hopes the program, by being so large and accessible, imbues a multitude of students with a drive to get more involved and consider what further action is appropriate.

"This is not a one-week trip," said Keating. "It is just a first step, whether it encourages them to further service work like applying for an international trip or just inspires them to think about different ways they can serve their community."

Without an application process, however, the program cannot pick and choose its participants. Instead, people come for a whole variety of reasons.

Do Motives Matter? Student motives for joining the Appalachia Volunteers run a wide gamut from altruism to gaining new friends at BC.

Damian Melvin, A&S '09, who hails from the Appalachia region, himself, has decided to see what all the hype is about. Having lived in Somerset, Pa., Melvin said he wants to see if, living in the region for so long, he has simply been accustomed to the problems therein.

"I chose that area for two reasons. First, a selfish reason: I really wanted to go close to home, because my mom said she might visit and bake for us. But the main reason I'm doing it is because I know a lot of areas in my region are really downtrodden and I want to see how real it is," said Melvin. "I think the Appalachia program itself kind of builds it up - maybe it's built up for kids from Long Island or New Jersey suburbs who haven't been to 'hickville,' but for me, it sounds a lot worse than I thought that it was. The reason that I'm going is to see if I've grown up around it and I just don't notice it or if it is an illusion, if they've built it up to be more than it actually is."

While Melvin's motives seem genuine, others wonder if students, particularly young students, might be doing this to expand their social network.

"Are kids doing Appalachia just to expand their network?" said Arens, "I think, yeah, some people are. For them, it's less about service than it is about meeting people, initially. I don't think that is really such a bad thing, though, because, at the end of the day, those kids get an experience that is much deeper and much more profound than they anticipated. At least they are being exposed to a lot of the issues. It's easy to be down on the program because it incorporates kids that aren't going for the right reasons, per se, but what are the right reasons? Just because someone doesn't understand the mission of the program doesn't mean they can't be exposed to it and changed by it."

While she recognizes the need for bonding, Arens also cautions about letting it take over the experience.

"I do think that there is potential for those issues to get trumped by the kind of getting-to-know-you-setting. I think definitely my freshman year trip really didn't get into the issues that they should have; we spent most of our time on the getting-to-know-you kind of stuff," said Arens.

Liddell said the hope is that the diversity of motives among the volunteers will allow each participant to respond uniquely to the spring break experience.

"I think that there are a variety of motivations," said Liddell. "A first-year student who is having trouble making friends or finding a niche here at Boston College may look to Appalachia to find 'people like me, people I can relate to,' because someone told them that that happened for them at Appalachia. I can't fault that motivation because it happens for people, and if that's drawing people in, perhaps some of the other stuff that we give them will rub off on them, even if their motivation wasn't all of those things.

"I think what happens for some people is that the community that is built among the Boston College students sort of crosses all those motivations together. Even if some didn't come wanting to know about justice issues or wanting to put their faith into action, they've met someone in their group for whom that was the motivation. Somehow, they are able to share those experiences even though they come with different motivations."

This community Liddell speaks of is formed out of the common encounter with issues of poverty and social justice. The community features two major dynamics - an intense devotion to the program and close relationship to the people who share the experience and a struggle to understand how to bring that experience back to campus.

Appalove and Drunkalachia These two social tendencies have been summed up in the two portmanteaux above.

The first, "Appalove," describes the feel-good nature of the relationships formed on the trips. Keating described it by saying, "Appalove is this contagious warm feeling to be with a group of people that you've really connected with."

The community comes together in a curious way. Not knowing even with whom they will be sharing the experience until three weeks before the trip, relationships don't really gel until participants have gotten away from BC.

Kelly Dalton, CSON '08, relates a telling story of how, on the drive down to her site, her group wasn't able to sing an adequate "Happy Birthday" to one of their group members: "The first night we went down it was someone's birthday and we were all so embarrassed because when we were singing 'Happy Birthday,' it came time for 'happy birthday dear -' and we couldn't remember his name," said Dalton.

This initial distance, however, has a purpose said Caitlin Corrieri, transportation coordinator and LSOE '07, in providing a stable learning environment.

"Because our program is so large," said Corrieri, "for stability, it's easier to meet as a large group in the beginning. Part of our program, since it is open to everyone, is that, in the beginning, it's less about group togetherness and more about learning about the Appalachia region and the issues involved there. Part of the excitement is getting to know people during the week on the trip."

Dalton stressed the benefit of meeting people in this manner - something outside the college norm of dorms, classes, and parties.

"When you get there, you get to know people on a different level. It is something almost sacred. [People on my trip] have a bond on a level I don't even share with my roommates," said Dalton.

Yet, it is bringing that bond back to campus that has caused one of the most talked-about elements of the program: "Drunkalachia."

The issue has been brought into the fore most prominently in the Global Justice Project's "Freshman Disorientation" packet. It says: "So go on these trips. But go on them to further your education and critical understanding of society, [and] economics … don't go to on them to take pictures and get wasted with your group the night you get back."

According to Keating, who said she has been in a group that has had these parties, the program has a history of parties the first night back.

"My freshman year, we got on the bus and [the leaders] passed around a piece of paper saying, 'what do you want at the party tonight?'"

While social interaction among volunteers seems fine, this type of culture does much damage both to the reputation and the mission of the program, said Arens.

"I think a huge flaw in the organization in the past has been that trip leaders have fostered an environment, especially on the night you get back from Appalachia, where it is a drunken college scene. I think that that is really, really unfortunate because of those kids for whom this is the first such experience and who might be thinking 'yeah, this is a different way to do college, a different scene for me, an opportunity to get away from all that.' When the first thing you reach for when you get back is alcohol, it negates that. It makes the experience you've had [on Appalachia] all the more removed for people. It's a thing you did in the past and now you are here with your friends and its back to the same old s-t."

To both students and administrators in the program, this shows the tension between the mission of going outside one's comfort zone and coming back to campus.

Liddell said that she was disturbed by this culture, as it was counterintuitive to the Appalachia mission, but not particularly surprised by it.

"The deepening of [participants'] friendships wasn't based on a shared party experience as some of their other relationships might be. So I find it interesting that those deep relationships that people have started in a way completely different than anything on campus, and then some of them come back to campus and sort of revert back to other social experiences they have with other folks, but they do it as an Appalachia group. I find that interesting and somewhat contradictory. Is it bad? I find it predictable," said Liddell. "The question comes up because it is contradictory. If there wasn't anything wrong with it, why would anybody be asking that question?"

This phenomenon, which seems so at odds with the nature of the program, is actually a method of processing an experience that has left people uncomfortable with the way they fit into the world, said Fleming.

"Is the idea of getting out of your comfort zone so you can go back into it? Or are you now supposed to be uncomfortable? When you get back you think, 'I have to fit back in somewhere, but I'm not sure I do anymore.' When people are stuck in places where they are uncomfortable, drugs and alcohol are one way to deal with it," said Fleming.

"How do you process that experience? What you are running into is standard operating procedure here at Boston College - you have a party. There is nothing in and of itself wrong with that, but mixing copious amounts of alcohol with underage drinkers may not be the best way to process that experience. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I'm asking what might be other ways."

The Other Ways This year's Appalachia Council has made an effort to confront or at least articulate the problem.

Last weekend, 72 trip leaders gathered at Dover, Mass., for a retreat where they engaged in serious conversation about the program's social culture.

"Paul read the [Freshman] Disorientation packet," said Keating, referring to her co-coordinator Paul Chiozzi, A&S '07, "and we held a panel on it. This issue is important for us as a council. We aren't trying to take away people's social life, but we want to say this is our challenge for you. We wanted to especially talk about the first night, since that sets the tone for the rest of the semester. This was a conversation, but I think when we came out of it, everyone knew that no one's going to have this raging party the night we come home."

Liddell said that she is glad change is coming from the students.

"I've known the program for seven years, and for those seven years, the conversation [about Drunkalachia] has steadily increased. As a student program, I think it has to come from peers. I could impose something on the program that would change its nature, but … I think that is not the most effective way of bringing about a change. Still, I'd love to see the conversations continue."

In place of this party scene, leaders have suggested redirecting efforts toward service expanding on last year's first-ever Appalachia Awareness week.

"We're looking to get involved with Habitat for Humanity here in Massachusetts to give us a way to harness the enthusiasm built on the trips," said Keating. "Even if it is having people over to watch a documentary or going to a lecture, there are many ways to make the after part constructive."

According to Arens keeping things constructive means keeping Appalachia about what it is supposed to be about.

"It's something that we do have to talk about and at least make people aware of and say to the trip leaders don't make Appalachia just about alcohol," said Arens. "It's fine if your relationships lead to wherever they lead to, but you need to make people understand that this experience is a lot bigger than getting drunk and having people to get drunk with."