HIGHER ED NOTEBOOK: University students 'pay it forward'

About 375 students from Midwest universities took part in the nationwide "Pay it Forward Tour."

The nine-day trip to Washington D.C, with stops along the way, was organized by Students Today Leaders Forever and took place during UND's spring break. Two buses containing about 37 people each took off from UND with the ultimate goal of meeting six buses from other Midwest universities in Washington, D.C., to help clean the Anacostia River.

The river was in desperate need of cleaning, according to Tyler Kaye, a UND bus core leader.

"We had 40 to 50 tires we took out of the river," he said. "We had a lot of hypodermic needles and some washing machines."

Students Today Leaders Forever has chapters at universities across the nation and has been doing the tour since 2004. It started at the University of Minnesota and is recognized as a nonprofit organization by the state of Minnesota. Participants in the tour do not need to be members; they only need to have the desire to help.

"I wasn't involved in STLF prior to the trip," UND participant Stacy Schultz said.

Schultz, 22, and her younger sister are from northwest Minnesota. They are UND students who took the trip and are now members of STLF.

The stops on the way to Washington for the UND students included Baltimore and Chicago, among other cities. The students volunteered at a nursing home, an adult daycare center, a low-income YMCA, a Ronald McDonald House, botanical gardens and they assisted with the National Student Partnership outreach program.

Schultz said she had never been to those cities before and learned a lot.

"I didn't think it would be like that," she said. "It was shocking to see how people live. I realized how good we have it." "We stayed in a hostel in Chicago," Kaye said. "But at other places, we stayed in student unions, churches, wherever they would let us sleep."

The group of strangers became closely knit on the tour, according to Schultz.

"I think my favorite part was the relationships you build with people on the trip," she said. "It brings out your character."

The participants shared their personal goals and fears with each other during late-night activities.

"You're sharing personal information with 40 people you've never met, but nobody judged each other," Schultz said.

The experience is good for anyone and is productive and rewarding, according to Schultz.

"I've done the Mexico thing for spring break, and this is far better," she said.

"Another thing I enjoyed was seeing the people smile and say thank you," Schultz said. "It made you feel like you were really doing something to help."