Students roll up sleeves in service work

Thursday, Sep. 1, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Bryan Haynes⁄The Gazette University of Maryland freshman Erica Ginsberg paints the finishing touches on a fence that surrounds the playground at the Adelphi-Langley Park Family Support Center.

The students, decked out in charcoal gray T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of the university program, the College Park Scholars, split up into teams and headed out to work. The group included 850 freshman, 100 upper classman serving as their leaders, and about 50 university faculty members, said Martha Wilmes, associate director for Student Affairs and coordinator of the service day program.

College Park Scholars are selected during the admissions process to live and learn together in groups, specializing in 12 interdisciplinary themes that cover topics focusing on involvement in community, Wilmes said.

The day marked the 10th year that the College Park Scholars have held the daylong community service event.

At the Adelphi-Langley Park Family Support Center on Riggs Road, about 20 students restored the playground, said Danitza Simpson-Escaño, the center’s director.

The students sanded and painted the playground equipment. They also cleaned the sidewalks and refurbished the benches and a swing at playground area, Simpson-Escaño said.

‘‘We get this done once a year, and this group of folks help us maintain it,” Simpson-Escaño said. ‘‘We wait patiently every year for this.”

At the College Park Aviation Museum, students put together a replica of the airplane wing built by the Wright Brothers. The students served as the museum’s ‘‘guinea pigs,” said Jane Welsh, education specialist and volunteer coordinator.

The museum will incorporate the wing building exercise into its lessons for Boy and Girl Scout groups and school tours this year, Welsh said.

Ben Newcomer, 17, a freshman member of the scholar program from Germantown, didn’t know the city’s aviation museum existed or that the Wright Brothers trained pilots there before Monday.

‘‘I didn’t know anything about College Park,” Newcomer said. ‘‘I knew where Route 1 was, but now I feel more like I’m at home and know the historical importance of this site.”

Newcomer, along with his classmates, used wood beams and cloth to assemble the skeleton outer wing of the Wright Brother’s airplane. Newcomer, who will participate with the scholars program for all four years while at the university, is part of a group who will study science and discovering the universe. This is his area of focus while he is a College Park Scholar. He will take courses and special seminars that relate to this area of study while doing community work.

He also will focus on service-based learning throughout the year that will hopefully teach him more about the history of the city in which he is studying.

‘‘I’d hear of Kitty Hawk but I had no idea about the College Park air field,” he said.

‘‘Now, I appreciate the effort this design took and now we build F-14 fighters.”