Outside the Classroom

Hurricane Harvey Relief Trip

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, CBU’s Spiritual Life office assembled a team of roughly 50 student-volunteers and sent them to aid the recovery efforts in and around Houston. A writer, photographer and videographer joined the team to document the efforts. In addition to getting on-the-ground field experience as multimedia reporters, LMG students got the opportunity to tell powerful stories of the families affected by the hurricane’s devastation and, in doing so, encourage others to join the recovery effort.

Hurricane Harvey Relief Trip

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, CBU’s Spiritual Life office assembled a team of roughly 50 student-volunteers and sent them to aid the recovery efforts in and around Houston. A writer, photographer and videographer joined the team to document the efforts. In addition to getting on-the-ground field experience as multimedia reporters, LMG students got the opportunity to tell powerful stories of the families affected by the hurricane’s devastation and, in doing so, encourage others to join the recovery effort.

Help Portrait

Once a year, photographers, makeup artists and hairstylists around the world come together under the belief that the best way to take a photo is to give a photo. Started by the photographer Jeremy Cowart, anyone can participate in their own version of Help Portrait, in which we take photos of those in need who may not have access to professional-quality portraits on their own.

Our students have worked with homeless shelters and recovery facilities in the Riverside community to make photographs that can be sent to family, used with job applications and more. We shoot, edit and print the photos and deliver them back for free.

Angola Prison with Lifeline Global

CBU students have traveled to Louisiana State Penitentiary, also known as Angola Prison, to volunteer as the media team for Lifeline Global Ministries. Lifeline is a nonprofit that seeks to restore and equip incarcerated men and women by equipping them to become godly parents so they may break the generational cycle of incarceration.

For several years, students spent several days with inmates who participate in Lifeline programs, including the Returning Hearts Celebration — the one day per year qualifying men at Angola can spend with their children, grandchildren or other young family members in person. Under the guidance of faculty advisers, students help tell stories of renewal and hope through text, photos and video, all of which are written, shot, edited and given to Lifeline before the students board the plane home.