From January 6 to 12, 2008, fellow second-year law student, Andrea Miller, and I led a group of twelve Penn State Dickinson Law students from both campuses and all classes of our school to volunteer in New Orleans on an alternative winter break trip. I first experimented with the endeavor of an alternative break in New Orleans last March. This time, our trip was made possible by generous donations from the Law School and surrounding community and student interest in joining the trip was overwhelming. We worked for the Student Hurricane Network, a student-run collaborative that has placed thousands of law students with volunteer projects in hurricane-damaged areas of Louisiana and Mississippi over academic breaks since 2005.

Our assignment for the week was with the Pontilly Disaster Relief Collaborative, a non-profit neighborhood association in the heart of the Eighth Ward – where up to ten feet of water swallowed a once vibrant community just across the canal from the Ninth Ward. Pre-Katrina, the neighborhood boasted 2,000 single-family homes, a golf course, a large park, a senior center, and several schools. The Pontilly residents were forced to evacuate and relocate as electricity was just restored in the area last fall. To date, only about a quarter of the residents have returned home; to most, “home” at the moment is a small FEMA trailer in the front yard of a house-in-progress.

Team Penn State Dickinson Law worked with a few dozen other law students from across the country to conduct a two-part housing survey in the Gentilly Woods neighborhood over the course of the week. Half of the group assessed property damage and took pictures to accompany the survey; the rest conducted personal interviews gauging residents’ hurricane experience and subsequent efforts to rebuild their homes, thoughts on the recovery process, and personal views regarding the current state of Greater New Orleans. The data we collected will be compiled, analyzed and used to gain funding and devise plans to rebuild the Pontilly community in the years to come.

Our experiences in Gentilly Woods throughout the week were interesting, to say the least. Some residents were wary of sharing their stories with strangers and others refused to speak to us at all, but most of the residents we spoke to could not convey enough of their hope for the future. A number of residents in the Pontilly area were fortunate enough to raise the necessary funds to rebuild their homes.

Some are hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, others had the foresight to insure their homes against flood damage and most obtained at least a small portion from the federal and state governments. However, everyone we talked to had spent every dime of savings on their homes. One of the questions we asked each resident was, "Will you stay in New Orleans for the foreseeable future?" This question was usually answered with a resounding "YES!"– despite the city’s foreboding economy and crime rate, shortage of schools and jobs, increasing rents and decreasing population. Nevertheless, New Orleans was, still is and will be home for these people and their families.

In addition to the work, our group was able to see a lot of New Orleans from the windows of our rental vans. The massive crowds around the Superdome for the LSU-OSU bowl game; the "circus" that is Bourbon Street and the historic landmarks along the river were deeply contrasted by the symbolic pink tents marking Brad Pitt'’s fundraising and rebuilding efforts along the levees in the washed-away Lower Ninth Ward; the all-too-familiar FEMA trailers dotting every free inch of Greater New Orleans; and the tent cities of homeless people that have risen under the freeways. The lagging recovery process on the federal, state, and local levels of government have now been supplemented with small steps taken by churches, neighborhood associations, and thousands of volunteers from across the globe.

I hope that Penn State Dickinson School of Law can continue its involvement in assisting New Orleans down the long road home. As students, we are the ideal volunteers – regular breaks from the rigorous academic schedule and freedom from the stresses of the "real world" allow us to truly take a time out to help others in need. New Orleans will need all the man power, and brain power too, that it can summon in the years to come as the rebuilding process continues.

As we departed New Orleans to head back to the Law School for the spring semester, I realized that I’d like to raise my own signs here: "They are still coming home! They need help to rebuild! Don’t forget New Orleans!"