While in Nepal, Orr, with a team of financial and administrative supporters, established a scholarship for female Nepalese students. The scholarship has funded the education of 80 girls. "In that society, the girls are lower cast individuals; they are married off and have little choices," he said. "With a chance of college, we hoped they would have a chance to see the greater world." The state senator carried that sense of service into politics. "I hope I am able to help people that have needs that need to be met," Orr said. "Many times the government is not as effective or responsible as it could be or should be to people who are facing issues." Since Orr's time in the Peace Corps, the focus on volunteerism and community service has increased. "Giving back" and "making a difference" became popular catchphrases, motivating the younger generation - a generation that includes Land. "During my year abroad I was able to reflect. I want to go into education. I want to be a teacher," said Land, who received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to help fund her travel to and studies at the University of Mumbai.
74532, Nepal RPCV Carson Land, who is part of a growing trend of civic-minded youths, joins nonprofit initiative Impact Alabama after studying in Mumbai
This Land is your land
Carson Land, who is part of a growing trend of civic-minded youths, joins nonprofit initiative Impact Alabama after studying in Mumbai
By Catherine Godbey
Caption: Carson Land, center, said her favorite activity in India while she was studying at the University of Mumbai was volunteering as an English teacher at the YMCA. Upon returning to the U.S., Land joined Impact Alabama, a service-learning initiative connecting college students with service projects.
Carson Land served her time.
For 10 months, the Morgan County native lived in Mumbai, India, eating foreign food, wading through the slums, volunteering at a school and immersing herself with the culture.
She traded her family for strangers, the all-in-one grocery stores for fruit and vegetable stands and neatly lined rows of houses for overcrowded, run-down streets.
In April, Land returned with recipes of Indian dishes, a deeper respect and love for the culture and calling one-time strangers now friends.
She served her time, she served the people, she made a difference - but she is not done.
Land is part of the growing trend focused on civic and social responsibility - a movement that has steadily gained attention the past two decades.
According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, since 1989, volunteerism by older teens has doubled and service participation by college students has risen since Sept. 11, 2001.
State Sen. Arthur Orr was part of the 1989 statistic.
In 1989, while his classmates secured well-paying jobs, the then-recent law school graduate joined the Peace Corps, providing educational intervention in Nepal.
"I was blessed with fine parents and having the opportunity to have a good education," Orr said. "This was a way for me to give back and I didn't have a family or mortgage so I was able to be mobile."
For 27 months, Orr traveled across the remote land where roads did not exist and teachers received no formal training. He earned $83 a month.
"I matured substantially. There was no hospital. It was the worst isolation I ever experienced," Orr said. "They had never seen a motorized vehicle and televisions were rare. If it couldn't be carried in on someone's back, they did not have it."
Scholarship in Nepal
While in Nepal, Orr, with a team of financial and administrative supporters, established a scholarship for female Nepalese students. The scholarship has funded the education of 80 girls.
"In that society, the girls are lower cast individuals; they are married off and have little choices," he said. "With a chance of college, we hoped they would have a chance to see the greater world."
The state senator carried that sense of service into politics.
"I hope I am able to help people that have needs that need to be met," Orr said. "Many times the government is not as effective or responsible as it could be or should be to people who are facing issues."
Since Orr's time in the Peace Corps, the focus on volunteerism and community service has increased. "Giving back" and "making a difference" became popular catchphrases, motivating the younger generation - a generation that includes Land.
"During my year abroad I was able to reflect. I want to go into education. I want to be a teacher," said Land, who received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to help fund her travel to and studies at the University of Mumbai.
Teaching in Mumbai
For the Birmingham-Southern University graduate who majored in English, the afternoons teaching 25 6- to 14-year-old boys at the Juhu Beach YMCA led her to that decision.
"My first day at the YMCA, a little boy, whose name I later learned was Umesh, had a big smile on his face and said, ‘Teacher?' " Land said. "I fell in love with those boys. I saw their joy of learning and reading. It was an empowering experience for me and I hope also for them."
Upon returning to the U.S., Land joined Impact Alabama, a service-learning initiative connecting college students with service projects.
Based in Birmingham, the nonprofit organization created FocusFirst, SaveFirst, SpeakFirst and CollegeFirst programs.
Last year, the initiatives screened more than 29,000 children for vision problems, secured $7 million in refunds through free tax assistance and led a high school debate team to a national competition.
"Alabama is one of the poorest rural states in this country," said Stephen Black, founder of Impact Alabama. "Carson is part of a group of 21-year-olds teaching college students how to conduct vision screenings for thousands of poor 3-year-olds. That is the definition of making a difference."
And the movement is growing, with Land at the center.
"Carson is incredibly bright and compassionate," Black said. "Like the best and brightest of her age, she is very secure in what she believes and her ability to make a change. She shows that because she is working 50 hours a week for $1,000 a month."
Service trumps money
For Land - the summa cum laude graduate, member of Phi Beta Kappa, a summer fellow at UC Berkeley who plans to attend graduate school to study literature - service, travel and the understanding of other cultures trumped money.
"I want to experience Brazil and Kenya and Ireland, Morocco and China and Argentina," Land said in the last of a series of columns she wrote for The Daily during her time in India. "We are fortunate to be living in an age of such interconnection. We should take advantage of opportunities to go away from the familiar, see something new, and return home with newer, brighter eyes."
That desire to connect is spurring the movement of giving back.
"Since Sept. 11, 2001, there is a higher percentage of kids in the suburbs that do not have relationships with kids in urban areas and vice versa," Black said. "That cultural isolation feels very unfulfilling to young people. And they yearn for the opportunity to create those relationships."
Whether colleges or upcoming students are fueling the movement is unknown.
"It's the whole chicken and egg thing. Universities have added tons of opportunities for service as part of the curriculum," Black said. "But many of them would say they only added it because of the demand from people like Carson. For us, the why doesn't matter; it just matters that it is happening."
