To get ready for #RedbirdImpact Month this June, we’re celebrating Redbird alumni who have made it their mission to give back.
As an undergraduate student, Brandon Thornton ’11, M.S. ’16, was heavily involved with civic engagement opportunities and extracurriculars. From his involvement with the Association of Residence Halls to being both an on- and off-campus senator for ISU’s Student Government Association (SGA), which, ultimately, led Thornton to get involved with Alternative Breaks.
Alternative Breaks is a student organization run through the Center for Civic Engagement at Illinois State that provides students with the opportunity to partake in social change. On Alternative Breaks trips, students travel locally, nationally, or globally to help communities in need by building homes for the homeless, feeding hungry families, and much more.
“Through my work with student government, I found my passion for Alternative Breaks, and I feel like everything I learned in the classroom about relationships, I didn’t learn in the actual classroom. I learned by participating in Alternative Breaks, volunteering, and all of the other clubs I did at ISU.”
Thornton took part in his first Alternative Break trip during his sophomore year when he and a group of his fellow students went to Memphis, Tennessee, to volunteer at a refugee camp. Thornton was hooked and wanted to give back more which led him to travel to the Dominican Republic as a part of the Alternative Winter Break.
“We were working at an orphanage, and that’s where it reinforced this idea of active citizenship where everything you do should be intentional, and you want to do something that’s meaningful and not going to create reliance.”
These Alternative Break experiences inspired Thornton to be an Alternative Break trip leader to Guatemala during his senior year. During this trip, Thornton and his peers built one of the first public libraries for the community.
“Every time I would get home, I would always have this reverse culture shock. I felt disappointed to be back where meaningful, life-changing service with a purpose wasn’t happening. That’s why this type of service was something I vowed to do once I entered the classroom,” said Thornton.
When Thornton started teaching at Bloomington High School, he also started brainstorming ways he could share his passion for civic engagement and service with his students. It was Thornton’s Alternative Break experiences that inspired him to start his own alternative breaks program at his high school. With the help of ISU’s Center for Civic Engagement Assistant Director Harriet Steinbach, M.S. ’05, Thornton was able to start Club AB and did so in the middle of a pandemic.
“It was really hard to keep students engaged because the last thing they wanted to do after being on Zoom calls all day was join another Zoom. We were supposed to be going around and installing six Little Free Libraries in March of 2020, but because of the pandemic, we couldn’t do that,” said Thornton. “So, we had to pivot and think of other ways to stay with our mission of access to literacy, but also make it meaningful.”
To replace their original plan, Thornton and small groups of Club AB were able to meet up and help the West Bloomington Revitalization Project, an organization dedicated to improving and creating a stronger, safer, and more beautiful West Bloomington. Instead of building Little Free Libraries, they helped stock barber shops with books, set up a Little Free Library in a laundromat, and were able to give every child at Sarah Raymond Early Childhood Center a book. It may not have been what they originally planned, but these miniature service projects allowed Club AB to preserver through the pandemic. In fact, with many of the students’ already busy schedules, these types of projects allowed more students to participate.
Although Club AB hasn’t been able to go on a true Alternative Break trip yet, Thornton has been hard at work writing grants to prepare for the day when it becomes a reality. Until then, Thornton’s students are continuing to partake in mini-projects, such as collecting hygiene kits for the unhoused community and tutoring middle school students to help prepare them for high school. Thornton’s dream for the club’s future is to take students on an immersive experience in the next two to three years.
In addition to Club AB, Thornton also advises the speech and debate team and Beacons of Light, a social justice club that teaches kids about the systemic barriers around them and how to advocate for meaningful and permanent change. Thornton’s ability to lead students and encourage them to partake in their own civic engagement projects is something he attributes to his time as a student at ISU.
“Honestly, I am the teacher I am today because of ISU. From the day I stepped on campus, I felt like there was an emphasis on going beyond the classroom. Never in my life did I think I would be doing the things I’m doing with a math degree, but it was those experiences I had at ISU that made me realize I could do something better,” said Thornton.
Do you want to make a #RedbirdImpact like Thornton? Visit the Center for Civic Engagement’s website to find out what opportunities are available. One simple way now is to find your own service project as a part of #RedbirdImpact Month. Make a difference and share your impact to help us reach our #RedbirdImpact alumni service goal.
