Rea A. Redd, library director and history teacher at Waynesburg University has been conducting service learning trips for the students of Waynesburg for the past six years. The trips are designed to visit some of the battlefields in American history and help out in the preservation of their grounds. Much of the work involves students working outside either landscaping the battlefield and related landmarks, or renovating the walls and other structures.
“The President of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association welcomes us back,” said Redd.
The project started back in the fall of 2013 when Jacquelyn Core, the former provost, asked Redd to start the program. After the starting of the program, it has continued since the fall of this year. Redd, along with the help of Kelly Hardie, the director of service learning, and Courtney Dennis, the Waynesburg University Museum director, organized a trip for students to visit the Gettysburg battlefield during each fall semester.
The trip allowed students to earn a credit as part of their service learning class, but the main purpose of the trip according to Redd is the chance for students to work at a national park and understand the hard work it takes to manage a park.
“We are going to be doing stuff that you might not do again in your lifetime unless you volunteer,” said Redd.
Students that went on the trip were rewarded with fun and educational tours, as well as the freedom to go anywhere in the 6,000-acre national park that was in need of cleaning or maintaining. This meant that students were able to choose where they wanted to go for their service, as long as they stayed within the guidelines of the national park and the schedule that Redd had prepared for them.
Students that were on the trip experienced the history for themselves, as they stayed at the Lutheran Seminary Mansion that was built in the 1900s on the Gettysburg National Park and is one of Gettysburg’s guest houses that can be rented out online.
The trip is not restricted to any specific students or their major, according to Redd and Dennis.
“Anyone who is an enrolled at Waynesburg University student can go and other faculty and staff can go as well,” said Redd.
Anyone interested in history and the preservation of our American national parks as well as historical landmarks can go on this trip and can experience it firsthand.
Redd mentioned that this was not just the place to see, but “to become something bigger than just being a tourist for three days.” Redd encourages all students to consider volunteering for more trips in the future.
One thing that is new for this coming spring will be a service trip to Antietam and Harpers Ferry, which is known to be one of the bloodiest battles in American history. This trip will be planned by Redd, along with Dennis and Hardie. Dennis, who is one of the advisors for the trips, enjoys going on them as a personal interest to her and joined on the last fall trip to Gettysburg.
“Helping people with this kind of thing is very special to me,” said Dennis. “I enjoy seeing students working hard, enjoying themselves, and I think if you like to work hard and have fun you should help volunteer. We’re providing a service, but we are also providing a learning experience for the students.”
Students that go on the trip will be providing the same services required as the trip to Gettysburg, in addition to learning the history that the city has to offer. The trip currently consists of 12 students along with Redd and Dennis as faculty advisors.
“I hope that students work hard, learn from the process, but also enjoy the camaraderie between one another,” said Dennis. “I’d like them to leave at the end of the trip with a sense of accomplishment.”
The sign-up forms for the trip to Antietam and Harpers Ferry are closed, but anyone interested in the Gettysburg trip in the fall next year can stop by Hardie’s office at the first floor of Stover Center for Service Learning, Redd on the second floor of the library, or Dennis down in the library on the bottom floor of Miller Hall.