uring the summer of 2012, Habitat Metro Louisville partnered with the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program for a massive undertaking. In just four weeks, 360 high school students, joined by faculty and staff, built a Habitat house alongside homeowner Ubah Adan and her family.
The Louisville affiliate already had a close connection to the summer program for outstanding rising seniors through two staffers who are GSP alumnae: volunteer coordinator and construction supervisor Carin Veech and family services coordinator Jackie Isaacs. Both acknowledge the impact the GSP experience had on their lives and were thrilled to be a part of the program for a new group of students — and to connect it all to Habitat.
“I got a chance to talk to some of the classes about my experiences and how GSP and Habitat have changed my life,” Isaacs says. “It was great to be able to reconnect with some of my former mentors and possibly be a mentor to others. I hope they had an engulfing, deep-seated experience that would drive them to want to do more and help more and build more and be a part of more.”
That’s exactly what happened. Journalism teacher Jeanie Adams-Smith captured the build and begins her video “We Built a House” with these words: “Once in a while you get to make a difference in someone else’s life.” It’s easy to see what that difference looks like in the smiles of the Adan family and the students who helped them build their new home.
