Tusculum College students Ginger Morgan, Amy Willett, and Jennifer Bomyea (from left) stock items from a recent delivery into the food pantry of Good Samaritan Ministries in Johnson City. The students are part of a service-learning class at the college that worked with Homeless Coalition agencies in Johnson City. (Tusculum College photo)

Tusculum students provide varied resources for Homeless Coalition

Tusculum College students have applied their minds and their helping hands for the benefit of homeless individuals in a nearby city this academic year.

Students gathered statistics and and performed research on behalf of the Homeless Coalition in Johnson City. They also served meals to the homeless and helped out in a Salvation Army thrift store there.

This partnership between the college and Homeless Coalition has been a winning situation for all involved. Students are gaining valuable experience in academics and service. And one agency involved has gained, besides the direct help of the students, an excellent chance of receiving a $136,000 grant.

Students in psychology classes taught by Professor Melinda Dukes worked during the fall semester to complete needed research and compile statistics for the agencies involved in the Homeless Coalition.

Service-learning classes have also worked with the agencies. Students in the sixth block Service-Learning class provided varied assistance to such agencies as the Manna House, the Downtown Clinic, Haven of Mercy, the Melting Pot, Keystone Dental Clinic, Good Samaritan Ministries, and the Salvation Army.

An agency benefiting from the efforts of both the psychology and service-learning classes is Good Samaritan Ministries. This non-profit organization provides benevolence to those in need, including food and assistance with rent, utility, and medical expenses. It serves people in Washington, Greene, Sullivan, Unicoi, Carter, and Johnson counties.

"We really look forward to when the students come," said Good Samaritan co-director Sarah Wells. "When they come, they always work hard and are interested in what they are doing. We have students come back and help after their course is over. We are grateful for Tusculum College and its students."

Students have been able to fulfill many needs of the ministry, Wells said, and students in psychology courses this past fall helped provide a specialized, much needed service to the organization that could provide more funding.

"Dr. Dukes' students did the research and compiled the statistics that we need to apply for grants but had never found time to do ourselves," Wells said. "We have been alerted that we have a good possibility of receiving a $136,000 grant, which we would not be eligible to receive except for the statistics compiled by the students."

Other students helped in more traditional ways: greeting clients, helping interview those who are seeking assistance, and working in the food pantry. The students in the sixth block Service-Learning helped fill boxes of food, toiletries, and over-the-counter medications for clients and stocked the food pantry shelves.

"I don't know what we would have done without the students," Wells said. She described a recent day during which a long line of people sought assistance when a large shipment of food arrived, including several 50-pound bags of potatoes. The students helped fill food boxes while unloading the truck and stacking items as neatly as they could in the tightly-packed pantry. "They even cleaned the pantry after they got through," she noted. "We have never had volunteers do that."

While they provide service to others, the students also gain valuable experience they can use in their academic and career pursuits, she said. For example, Wells said, the research experience gained by the psychology students could be used in almost any career.

The students are encouraged to interact with those they help, Wells said, whether through carrying a box of food out to a client or serving meals to the homeless at the Melting Pot. "We tell them to look the person in the eye, speak to them, and treat them with respect," she said.

Wells recalled a particular incident a few years ago at the Melting Pot between a Tusculum student and a man called "Pop." "Pop smelled really bad . . . and no one would sit with him at lunch. This student noticed that and went over to Pop's table, sat down and talked to him. Afterwards the student asked me if she had done something wrong, because when she said to Pop, 'Hi. How are you?,' he began to cry. I reminded her of how we tell the students to give of their heart and time to people. I told her, 'Today, you did that. Today you were Pop's friend.'"

Students in the service-learning class say that they have learned much from their experiences. Blu Davis, who worked at the Haven of Mercy, which assists homeless men, said the situation of one man there made a strong impression.

This man, in his 50s, had lost all the members of his family in a traffic accident, and had to sell his house to pay the funeral expenses. He then lost his job of more than 20 years because his employer learned he was homeless. That man did not want to get back into society, Davis said. But Davis asked, "What if his story is heard by a class 15 years from now and they do something to help someone else?"

Amber Schappacher, who worked in the Downtown Clinic, said she and other students shadowed medical personnel and met people who had no other place to go for health care. "It made me realize how we can take things like health care for granted," she said.

Ginger Morgan, who worked at Good Samaritan Ministries, said she learned that "homelessness was not just an idea. It could happen to anyone, maybe even someone you know, a family member or a friend."