Marian Wright Edelman, the president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund, once said, "Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it." I feel that education is way more than making sure you go to class or studying for the big biology exam. Whatever you learn must be used to better the lives of the people around you. After this trip, I will definitely use the things I have learned to fight for civil rights today.

From the seeds of kindness and compassion, happiness grows.

My Spring Break plans will not include sleeping in, traveling to exotic locations or making money. Beginning tomorrow, I will be traveling with 18 wonderful new friends on a whirlwind tour of the Deep South to create memories discovering the unfinished legacy of the civil rights movement in America.

Because I believe so strongly in the transformative power of compassion and equality among members of this third rock from the sun, this trip will hopefully serve as a confirmation of the great achievements passionate individuals have accomplished in their trusting in the power of the human spirit to ultimately flourish in the name of justice and prosperity.

The day of... and I am just keeping it real!

Right now, I am sitting at the airport freaking out because I didn't prepare myself well enough for these blog entries. This is the honest truth. Gigi and I are singing Christmas carols, so now I feel a little better.

Sunday's activities were amazing! We had some minor issues with being locked in Kingdom Camp! To defeat our problems, we decided to drive our SUV's over some hills ... as you can imagine, this was pretty intense. Nonetheless, we made it to church (Temple of Deliverance Church of God). This was an absolutely great experience. You had to be there. But there was a lot of toe tappin' and hand slappin' going on, and the people were "high" in the spirit!

We arrived in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday and I've been having a great time ever since!!!

The weather is just gorgeous and the people are so friendly down here. One of the highlights of the trip so far would be meeting MinnieJean Brown-Trickey, one of the members of the Little Rock Nine. The Little Rock Nine were nine black students who became the first to integrate an all white school, called Central High School. On Sunday, we traveled from Memphis, Tenn., to Little Rock , Ark., which took three hours. At Little Rock we were able to see The Central High School where history was made.

On Monday we began our community service projects. My service project was aimed toward SlaveHaven, which is now a museum. SlaveHaven was known as the Burkle Estate. It is believed that Burkle, who was a German, helped slaves escape to the north by hiding them in his house. Our job was to renovate the front porch and also re-paint the interior walls. My group was sooooo great and I had so much fun. I learned a lot about the history of slavery in the United States. One thing that I learned was the history regarding the slave ship called Amistad. Amistad was a ship that went from Senegal on route to Spain. While on the ship, the Senegal people rebelled against the slaveowners and killed all but two.They were brought to Connecticut and were arrested. After a long struggle, the States gave the Africans the right to travel back to Senegal. That was an amazing story.

Well, what can I say about Monday? It required a lot of community service. We finally broke out into our sites and my group went to Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA) - a huge organization dealing with people with real-life issues. We participated in meals on wheels. We were able to see the good and the bad areas of Memphis. We were able to ride through extremely nice areas of Memphis into extremely poor areas of Memphis. In the poorer areas, we delivered food.

On Wednesday, we went to Oxford, Mississippi! (By the way, down south, they don't say Mississippi, they say Mis-Sippi. I just thought that would be a great short "geography" lesson.) Anyway, visiting Ole Miss University was yet another powerful experience.

Overall, my experience this year was absolutely, hands down, amazing! I would go to Memphis with this learning assignment every year.