Missouri S&T is hosting a National Active Citizen Competition – a challenge to other alternative spring break college programs to improve communities through service while social distancing.

Approximately 50 Missouri S&T students had originally planned to travel to several locations across the United States during their spring break and volunteer to better communities, but the spread of COVID-19 canceled those plans.

Now, new plans are in the works to continue Miner Challenge, an alternative spring break volunteer effort, by taking on local service work at students’ individual locations while distance learning through the university. Missouri S&T’s Miner Challenge coordinators are working to create a national movement for college students to make positive impacts all over the country during this time of social distancing.

The competition will begin Monday, March 30, with students planning their own service ideas that they can do from home or with limited contact and still make a positive impact on communities. Possible ideas could include sewing masks or 3-D printing parts for local health care organizations in need, fostering an animal from a local shelter or volunteering to deliver groceries to an elderly neighbor, all while following current social distancing best practices.

Joining Missouri S&T in this competition so far are Baldwin Wallace University, Franklin and Marshall College, Georgia Southern University, Missouri State University and Nazareth College. Haywood says she is working to get more colleges and universities to join the competition.