Students give up spring break to help hurricane victims

Students from N.C. Central University, Duke University and the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics are sacrificing their spring breaks to help hurricane victims in the Gulf region.

About 65 Duke students departed from Durham between Thursday and today; two buses will transport about 100 NCCU students to Alabama at midnight tonight; and 25 NCSSM students will make a similar journey on April 4.

They will be joined by at least 1,000 other college students, most of them part of an initiative by Katrina on the Ground, a group recruiting and training black students to help in the recovery effort. The group financed NCCU students' stay in the area while the school paid for transportation. Endowments from Duke Chapel and money from student groups paid for the Duke students, while NCSSM students are paying their own way.

The students think their work, if only for just a week, will make a difference in the lives of hurricane victims. Their feelings about themselves and others may change as well.

Taking this journey will give Tomasi Larry and other NCCU students a chance to directly help those in need.

"I think it's going to be an epiphany on me," said Larry, 20. "It's going to show every student how much we're interdependent on one another."

Traveling to the Katrina-affected area will be a personal journey for Larry, a sophomore from Goldsboro studying political science and public administration. His uncle's Biloxi, Miss., home was destroyed in the storm and he has family in Alabama and Louisiana.

NCCU students will travel to Selma, Ala., where they will be trained to clean schools, rebuild homes, provide medical aid and other needs. Then they will be dispatched to Biloxi, Miss., Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans. Duke students will also be in New Orleans, cleaning mold from homes before demolishing them to prevent the mold from becoming airborne.

Seeing the destroyed homes up close will be emotional for Duke student Katie Xiao, but working through the week and talking to others will help her deal with the experience, she said.

"I wanted to get away from climbing on a soap box and haranguing every social problem," said Xiao, 21.

Xiao, a senior from Ledyard, Conn., thought the actions of three of her classmates, who sneaked into the affected area to help, was heroic. Now, the political science major wants to help in her own way.

Though Matesha Jones wasn't affected by Katrina, she still took it personally. Jones and other NCSSM students will spend MiniTerm, a week when NCSSM students work on an independent project, take a short course or travel, in New Orleans. They will pick up trash, remove debris and plant trees.

"To feel that I'm helping out, that's going to make me feel better because that could've easily been me," said Jones, 17, of Kenansville. "I want someone to help me if that was me."