David Schaad feels guilty for being a bad father for the second Spring Break in a row.
After bringing Engineers without Borders to Indonesia a year ago, the assistant chair of the civil and environmental engineering department and father of four led a crew of 147 students and faculty this year to St. Bernard's Parish, a suburb of New Orleans as part of the service learning course "Rebuilding from Ruins."
But a semester of guest lectures on disaster could not prepare the students for the hours they spent gutting out storm ridden houses and listening to tales from local residents.
The idea of the course emerged after Kristina Johnson, Dean of the Pratt School of Engineer, and Linda Franzoni, associate professor of mechanical engineering, met with students from the Pratt to brainstorm communiry responses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
It didn't take the group long to realize that responding to Katrina would take more than just organizing supplies. A class seemed a practical way to bridge the classroom and the disaster.
It soon became clear, though, that interest in the course was expanding beyond the engineering field. The course, which was first intended to enroll 30 to 40 people, would end up being capped at 200 undergraduate and graduate students.
With his service-related teaching experience, Schaad was "the natural victim," Franzoni recalls.
"I think it's been incredibly rewarding and has demonstrated a real depth of character and commitment on the part of the students to make a difference," Schaad says.
To some extent, sleeping in tents and eating buffet meals were reminiscent of summer camp. But there was nothing carefree about tearing down moldy drywall and discovering remnants of the lives of strangers.
Members of the Duke community cleared approximately 30 houses altogether during the trip.
"The thought of that is pretty significant," he says. "You don't get that kind of dynamic with a small group."
Students realized that beneath the rubble was all that remained of someone else's life when they found personal affects--a rocking horse, a porcelain doll collection, love letters, pornography and a school report card.
"You can see the changes in the lives of the students," Schaad says. "You see the light go on, and it just clicks."
But the greatest importance, Schaad says, comes in applying classroom lessons to the real world. "To learn about everything and see it and have it all come together helps you see what's most important."
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