Fall 2008 — Vol. 61, No. 4

At every Clemson Homecoming, you see them on Bowman Field. In the midst of fantastic orange and purple scenes with giant Tigers tromping on opposing mascots — students in hard hats and safety goggles work on a different type of display. They hammer their own tribute to the Clemson spirit — a sturdy house for a local family who needs it.

These students are from the University’s Habitat for Humanity Chapter, and the solid structure you see rising from footings during Homecoming week is just the tip of their work. And their accomplishments.

No wonder Habitat for Humanity International recently named Clemson’s chapter as the national Campus Chapter of the Year.

Clemson ‘doers’

Chapter members plan all year for this and several other builds. They study design concepts, develop and choose blueprints, solicit funds and building materials. They collaborate with city and county officials, survey sites and draw landscaping plans. They conduct education programs for future and current Habitat families. They create work schedules and organize volunteers.

And in the Habitat process, they apply what they’re learning in the classroom to what they can do in the community.

“Clemson students are doers,” says Chris Heavner, Lutheran campus minister and chapter adviser extraordinaire. “Once they are passionate about a worthwhile cause, they do what it takes to accomplish their goals.”

Since the Habitat chapter formed in 1994, students and volunteers have erected 27 houses — 24 for families in the surrounding communities and three during Maymester trips to Africa.

Heavner is quick to point out that “doers” includes the vital Pickens County Habitat for Humanity affiliate and a wealth of Clemson faculty who have seen how the student chapter can teach students and serve the community at the same time.

Web Extra: Habitat House 

The ‘Humanity’ part

Unique partnerships not only help get the job done, they also help change people’s perceptions of how they can make a difference, now and in the future.

• The annual Homecoming build brings together the Clemson community to put the “home” in the campus celebration. Their fall construction has created homeownership, and the pride and responsibility that go along with it, for 16 families.
• Each spring the chapter hosts students from other colleges and universities to work on a project. Empowered participants take ideas back to their own campuses and communities.
• In 2001, Clemson students completed the nation’s first Blitz Build, engaging participants from across the country to construct five Habit Houses in record time and inspiring other universities to activate their own chapters.
• In 2003, the chapter built the first Youth United home in partnership with D.W. Daniel High School. And the next year, they helped with the Easley High Senior Class Habitat build.
• In 2004, a grant from Thrivent Financial made possible the construction of three of the student houses. The grant was for Leadership Development, in particular allowing Clemson students to develop leadership in S.C. high school youth.
• As that house was being built, those working with the high schoolers raised enough money to build three houses in Tanzania. Clemson students working on the project, joined by others, traveled to Tanzania in 2006 to build two houses. They returned in 2007 to build another one.
• The Clemson chapter — through the construction science and management department — partners with YouthBuild, a local building program for high school students encouraged to complete their GED and develop employable skills. Since the fall of 2006, YouthBuild trainees have worked on five homes.
• In 2007, the chapter built the first student-led Martin Luther King, Jr. Dream House as part of the University’s MLK Day of Service celebration.
• Last year, the chapter sponsored a design contest with Clemson’s Emerging Green Builders as a service-learning project for architecture, landscape architecture, and construction science and management students. As a result, they’ve just completed what will be — upon certification — the first LEED Habitat House in the state.

Engaged learning

“Most college students recognize the terrific advantage of higher education for their own good,” says Heavner. “At Clemson, they know, or soon come to realize, they have a responsibility to apply what they’re learning for a greater good. Service organizations such as Habitat for Humanity give them the opportunity.”

The city of Clemson — working with the Pickens County Habitat for Humanity — supports student efforts, both in volunteers and in financial assistance. Not only is it the right thing to do, it makes good business sense. Every new Habitat House process upgrades the community, puts dollars back into the county and drastically improves the new homeowners’ quality of life.

Provost Dori Helms says, “Teaming intellectual development with economic development — learning with doing — shapes Clemson students into global citizens.

“Our campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity shows what amazing results students can accomplish when faculty and staff are their mentors and communities are their classrooms. This is engaged learning at its best.”

For more on Clemson’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, go to www.clemson.edu/~habitat. For its Pickens County affiliate, go to www.pickenshabitat.org/home.htm.