A delegation of 11 undergraduate students and four adults recently returned from a two week trip to Uganda, the first of three BT teams to travel to the region in 2009.

The crew, comprised of six students from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (UWRF), two students from the University of Notre Dame (ND), two students from the University of Virginia (U.Va.) and one student from the College of William & Mary (W&M) spent seven days assisting with the construction of the BT Academy of Gita (supported by U.Va.) and visiting other BT academies, a weekend in a home stay with a local Ugandan family and finished off the trip with two nights at Murchison Falls National Park.

For Andrea Serrano, the new campus coordinator at ND, the experience helped to strengthen her commitment to Building Tomorrow.

“After working along side the villagers and seeing first hand the changes that we are making through Building Tomorrow, my commitment to service has strengthened. Now that I am back on campus, sharing my experience with others has allowed them to also see the changes and become more excited to have such an amazing opportunity to help those in need through the power of education.”

In fact, since her return from Uganda, Andrea and Mary Pat Dwyer (fellow ND student and trip participant) have set plans in motion for a number of campus-wide fund-raisers, including one targeting each of the 29 dorms on campus.

And Notre Dame isn’t the only campus with an event-filled semester ahead. The University of Wisconsin – River Falls, the College of William & Mary and the University of Virginia are among six universities across the country who are actively planning separate “Bike to Uganda” fund-raisers scheduled to take place throughout April. The approximately 7,300 mile stationary “bike-a-thon” has proven to be Building Tomorrow’s biggest success, raising nearly $50,000 over the past two years.