Beyond Bama: Alternative Break Trips that Make an Impact

Beyond Bama: Alternative Break Trips that Make an Impact

By Natalie Page

Beyond Bama is a student service and leadership organization on campus that organizes trips for UA students during the fall, winter and spring breaks. Here are a few questions answered by co-team leaders Dustin Smith and Blake Noud.

Sum up in a couple of sentences what Beyond Bama is.

Dustin Smith: Beyond Bama is a community-action team focused on ethical and sustainable service work. We work with local communities to find out their needs and then help be the action plan that acts on those needs that the community dictates. All of our programs are fair trade service learning. Our main pillars are making sure our projects are ethical, sustainable and community empowering.

How many people do you usually take on the Beyond Bama trips?

Students participate in Beyond Bama during spring break.

Blake Noud: We typically take five to 15 people on our domestic trips. Our Nicaragua trips can swell to 40 or so people, but those 40 people are split among three service sites.

Where have you visited with Beyond Bama?

DS: I have served in Nicaragua three times; Greensboro, Alabama, one time; Houston, Texas, one time; and I am about to lead a trip over spring break to Guin, Alabama.

BN: I have traveled to Guin, Alabama, and Managua, Nicaragua, with Beyond Bama. On other trips I have gone to Atlanta; various locations in Nicaragua; New Orleans, Louisiana;  Houston, Texas; Greensboro, Alabama; Orlando, Florida; and Washington, D.C., to name a few.

What made you want to get involved and become a team leader for Beyond Bama?

BN: After taking my first trip to Guin in the fall of 2016, I was inspired to become a part of Beyond Bama, so I could contribute to communities like Guin. While there, we began to strip a house for Habitat for Humanity, and that feeling of helping others was something I desperately wanted to hold on to. I felt the best way for me to do so would be to become a part of Beyond’s leadership.

What is the most rewarding aspect of Beyond Bama?

DS: The most rewarding aspect for me is learning. It is absolutely wonderful to go to a new place and serve for a week, and the knowledge that you leave with is amazing. I love learning their culture and seeing how our typical ways of life here in Alabama aren’t always the norm, and that’s a good thing.

BN: The most rewarding aspects of Beyond Bama are seeing the impact we make on our participants and seeing the positive changes we can start to make for communities. Seeing participants so excited to serve and bring back their service mindset to Tuscaloosa and their hometowns is always incredibly exciting.

For more information about Beyond Bama, visit beyond-bama-alternative-breaks.