Traveling through different states tackling community issues, like homelessness, prostitution and critical illness, Soaring Service Leaders, a 15-member student-run community service organization, at N.C Central University is aiming to make an impact.
This December, the organization plans to travel to Washington D.C., Baltimore and New York City. The trip , which will cost about $400 for each student, has the theme of "Healing for the Holidays."
"Students will gain 30 community service hours, leadership skills, networking, life-long friends, engage with alumns, and they will learn the true meaning of service," said Korey Mercer, a political science and Spanish junior who is a team leader in the organization.
Before embarking on the trip, some Soaring Service Leaders will volunteer at Durham's Ronald McDonald House.
"Students will learn to interact with people that are different from them," said Soaring Service Leaders president ,Alphonso McEntire.
McEntire says a Martin Luther King quote inspires him. "The MLK quote that I love is, ‘Education is more than just a collection of classes.'"
Accoding to Mercer "It feels good to be a Soaring Service Leader."
"A lot of students don't have the opportunity to engage in these projects, it is a character-building organization."
McEntire's responsibility as the president of the organization is to oversee the organization and construct community service trips.
"The overall purpose of this organization is to promote community service and to engage not only on campus, but outside of campus," said Mercer.
Vice president of the organization, family consumer science and child development senior Deidre Morgan, described the Soaring Service Leaders as a group that "brings awareness to different topics."
The organization was founded in 2009 by individuals from the School of Education who sought out Kisha Daniels, a professor in the School of Education, as their adviser.
"This organization gives an opportunity that a book can't teach as something you have to have hands on experience with," said McEntire.
This year the organization had "A Way to Waste" at W.G Person Cafeteria and also "Habitat for Humanity."
Donations to assist students with their travel expenses can be brought to Donald Barringer in Room 2081 of the H.M. Michaux, Jr. School of Education Building. Barringer can be reached at 919-530-7292.
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