My summer in Marion

From the beginning of May 2018 until the end of that July, I lived and worked in the heart of the Alabama Black Belt: Marion, Alabama. I was able live there, and to work through the summer heat, because of the incredible Perry County community. They were gracious enough to invite my fellow University of Alabama Honors College students and I there, and to feed us, speak to us, and to teach us.

Every May, the University Fellows Experience sends its Freshman class to Marion, Alabama for the Black Belt Experience – three weeks of hard work on projects that address community needs and desires – designed over the course of the spring semester. Riley Raynor, Will Henson, and I designed and facilitated a civic engagement and leadership program called LAMP (Leaders After Marion’s Prosperity). We visited both private and public schools in Marion and then led a three-day after-school program where students toured local government buildings and non-profits and proposed their own Marion Youth Center to community leaders. And, with a little help from our friends, we helped eighth graders design a moveable mural to add even more color to historic downtown Marion.

In June and July I was able to return to Marion as Jean O’Connor-Snyder Intern for Main Street Marion and the David Mathews Center for Civic Life. There, my fellow interns and I worked at a literacy camp, wrote grants and action plans, and even recorded a podcast (or two).

(Please check out the amazing articles about Marion from my fellow interns at the David Mathews Center Blog, and check out the website that inspired the podcast at discovermarion.org.)

Looking back on that summer, it’s hard to express how much gratitude I have towards everyone in Marion and Perry County, who gave me guidance and inspiration as I worked to learn what it means to be an active citizen and to care deeply about a place.