OXFORD, Miss. — Building bookcases and painting walls
might not sound like a fun group activity for many college
students, but for more than a hundred University of
Mississippi honors students, these chores provided an
opportunity to bond while helping a good cause.
The group, roughly half the sophomores in the university’s
Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, traveled to
Chicago to fulfill the community action component of their
honors experience. They traveled by train, which meant 10
hours on two train cars for the 102 participants.
“We worked with the volunteer organization Chicago Cares,
and they had 3,500 volunteers at different places in the
city, so we were just a small part of that,” said Matt
Stephenson, a mathematics major from Madison who
co-organized the trip. “Our group put together bookshelves
and painted a mural at a community center.”
For the trips, the students do all the planning, including
selecting a city for their travels, arranging where they
volunteer and handling the logistics of travel and
accommodation. Previous volunteer trips have included
Seattle, Boston and Chicago.
Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, dean of the honors college,
said he is proud of this year’s sophomore class. “These
guys have set the bar high for our other classes to
follow,” he said. “It is the single largest group of
students to have traveled for the SMBHC.”
Chicago Cares is the city’s premier volunteer organization,
which provides opportunities for individuals and businesses
to improve the Chicago community through participation in
creative, structured group volunteer programs designed to
address the city’s most pressing needs.
The Ole Miss group was the only one from outside of
Chicago, and the students said they received an
enthusiastic response.
Erin Callahan, co-organizer for the trip, helped build
bookshelves at a day care for underprivileged children. “It
was a tricky job to put the bookshelves together,” said
Callahan, an international studies major from Ocean
Springs. “I was thankful that it was all organized and we
had written instructions. We worked hard, but it was fun.”
Beyond helping the children, the students said they
developed a sense of camaraderie by spending the weekend
together. “I got to meet so many classmates, and it was a
really good experience to have the entire class together,”
Callahan said. “I hope the fact that we brought so many
people inspires future classes because a big group is so
much better. Everyone had an amazing time, and it was
really meaningful.”
After completing their volunteer work, the group reveled in
Chicago on their own. “I did a lot of walking around and
got to go to Wrigley Field,” Stephenson said. “I’m a big
baseball fan, so that was great.”
Callahan enjoyed deep dish pizza and went ice skating. “It
was my first trip to Chicago and it was amazing. We went to
the Art Institute and Wicker Park and Chinatown and did
some shopping.”
For more information on the Sally McDonnell Barksdale
Honors College, go to