In a small, crowded office on the second floor of Nott Hall, undergraduate interns are changing the world–or at the least the world of one small community an hour’s drive from the University of Alabama’s campus.
This room houses 57 Miles, an Honors College community service initiative. For the past eight years, this student-led program has partnered with Marion, Alabama and other communities across the southern Black Belt region of Alabama. The initiative allows students to collaborate with community leaders and develop programs to elevate the lives of people living in the area.
“You hear people talking about the southern regions of Alabama and you hear people talking about poverty and the health care issues,” said DJ Jackson, an Honors College graduate assistant who oversees the initiative. “I remember my first time going down, I expected to interact with people who had negative attitudes and who didn’t care about their community and it’s actually been the exact opposite. We’ve found people who are extremely passionate about their community but they’re just facing these huge obstacles. Not only that but they’re also very welcoming and investing in our students and they want us to truly be successful. And that’s been kind of life changing for a lot of our students and myself.”
The initiative began as a partnership between the Honors College and the University Fellows experience. Initially, it was a three-week student led community service trip to Marion each May. This trip was so successful for both students and Perry County partners that the Honors College expanded it. Now, it is in its third year as a stand-alone program and is open to all students within the Honors College.
Jackson explained that the program focuses on four primary areas: education, health care, community engagement, and economics. Through these areas, the program allows students to collaborate with community leaders to create and run programs that benefit the community and reflect the students’ individual passions. Jackson said the majority of the work and programming are led by these students, who he called the heartbeat of the Honors College. The director gave the example of a student interested in the areas of theater and dance, who helped set up after school programs in those subjects for students at Frances Marion High School.
The program today takes many forms. What began as a three week Honors College trip has now expanded into year-round programming. Additionally, the initiative hosts periodic work days called an Afternoon of Service and leads Black Belt Action, a week-long service program for freshman that takes place the week before classes begin.
“[Black Belt Action] takes freshman, honors freshman, who come a week before classes start. They come, move onto campus early, and participate in some service based learning down in Marion during the day and explore Tuscaloosa and listen to some lectures here during the evening times,” said Katherine Mauldin, a junior international studies major and 57 Miles intern. “So you kind of get the best of both worlds, because you’re here, learning about the community, and you’ve just left your old community, and you’re creating your own little community with your group.”
Mauldin says she participated in Black Belt Action because she believes community service is the best way to engage and learn when arriving in a new area.
“It’s a way in which we can connect with the community. And me growing up, I’m 20 and I’ve moved 13 different times to nine different cities in four different countries,” Mauldin explained. “With every move, community service was a way I can learn more about the community I’m living in and it’s a way I can understand people and culture and customs without just sitting down in a classroom.”
Looking back on her experience with the program, Mauldin says the most fulfilling part is the relationships she has built with the members of the Marion community, many of which began on her very first day there.
“I was able to go down there and the first person we talked to was Dr. [Cathy] Trimble, and it was so amazing to see someone with such passion,” Mauldin said. “She was just, she was so excited and she loved what she was doing and that made me understand that I wanted to be in place where I loved what I was doing.”
Mauldin expressed her hope that she could become a leader like Trimble, who is the principal at a combined school in Marion. She described her a charismatic individual who is constantly working with, loving, and inspiring everyone around her.
“I want to be a leader who just always wants to make everyone else’s day better,” Mauldin said. “Even if it’s just a bunch of college kids who haven’t even started college yet, basically high school kids, who have come from all around the country and the world to my small town to just see what’s going on.”
Through 57 Miles, Mauldin established a new community for herself and built lasting relationships with individuals like Trimble. She said this eased her transition into college and back to America after living overseas most of her life.
“I was able to find this center ground of comfort in that community member. And because home is just this like big idea, not really a place for me, Marion is like slowly starting to become my home,” said Mauldin. “I’m able to interact with community members like that who really reach out, who really love on you, who really want to see you grow as a college student. Like they saw me as a freshman and they’re going to see me as a senior in college and they’re going to see me graduate.”
Jackson, who has participated in 57 Miles in various capacities since 2010, explained that this sort of relationship is typical between students and community members in Marion. He recalls one of his fondest 57 Miles memories that exemplified the attitude of the leaders in Marion and occurred while he was an undergraduate student leader.
“We were chaperoning a group of students in May when we go down for three weeks. We were actually traveling out to an airfield where some of our students have been working,” Jackson said. “And we pull up to the air field, and off in the distance, we see this plane landing. So we’re all like, ‘Oh, cool, we’re going to get to see this plane land.’ This plane actually comes and stops on the tarmac and we look in and see it’s one of our students who’s actually flying [it].”
Jackson explained that the airfield belonged to Marion Military Institute, and one of their instructors, Colonel Hansen, was riding in the cockpit with the student.
“He just allowed one of our students to fly it, so that was a little nerve racking,” recalled Jackson. “But it kind of just feeds back into them really pushing us and investing in us. Because he definitely put a lot out there to let a let a student fly his plane, but those stories are constantly happening, where we expect a little bit of opportunity and we end up just shooting for the moon. So that’s the coolest thing about Marion.”
The program is open to any interested students within the Honors College. While the program is not typically open to those outside the Honors College, 57 Miles does occasionally partner with specific colleges or organizations for particular programming, and Jackson expressed his hope that students not in the Honors College will still choose to get involved through the on-campus Community Service Center or similar organizations.
“Even if this particular opportunity is just for the Honors College, there’s still a lot of ways students can get involved in similar type experiences,” said Jackson.
