Posted by Mary Wimberley on 2007-03-16

Spring break will find many Samford University students doing anything but relaxing.

Trips for service and mission efforts are planned by several groups of undergraduate and graduate students during the week of March 19-23. Prior to beginning the week away from campus, students also collected funds and supplies to support tornado relief efforts in Enterprise.

Samford's office of University Ministries will sponsor week-long trips to New York City, Jacksonville, Fla., and Perry County, Alabama.

Fifteen students will work with Brooklyn Tabernacle in inner city New York City to conduct evangelism ministry, tutor, serve the homeless and participate in a prayer ministry.

In Jacksonville, Fla., 20 Samford students will serve with Word to Works Ministry in a variety of urban ministry projects. They expect to work at an AIDS hospital and a homeless shelter, and tutor children.

Closer to home, in rural Perry County, 15 students will partner with Sowing Seeds of Hope ministry to assist with the local thrift store, education programs for school children, and health care initiatives. They will also tackle light home construction projects. Samford has on-going projects and relationships in Perry County, where the school was founded as Howard College in Marion in 1841.

Some students in Samford's Beeson Divinity School will travel with the New York City and Perry County groups. Others will assist with a construction project in Venezuela, South America, participate in Hurricane Katrina-related construction in Slidell, La.; and work at a Baptist women's home in New Orleans, La.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 5,791 students from 49 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.