They picked up shovels and rakes to plant shrubs at Andalusia, the Flannery O'Connor farm.

Craig Amason, Executive Director of the Flannery O'Connor Museum identified several landscaping and trail maintenance projects. Within a few hours 28 students and faculty members made short work of the projects.

The results: the planting of several attractive shrubbery beds near the entrance to the O'Connor home and the clearing of a three-quarter mile trail on the 500-acre property.

“Please extend my most sincere gratitude to all the students for their hard work and what they accomplished in a very short time,” Amason said. “It was a tremendous success."

The opportunity to add the Andalusia landscaping project provides another civic engagement experience for Georgia college students, said Residential Learning Community coordinator Gregg Kaufman.

“In addition to pursuing learning,” Kaufman said, “students value collaborating as stewards of place in this historic community."