One of my favorite organizations at SMU is Alternative Breaks, which send students on community service trips over Fall, Winter and Spring breaks. It has provided me with not only eye-opening and perspective-expanding opportunities in Austin, New Orleans, and Quito, but also with extremely valuable leadership experience, planning, budgeting for, and leading trips. Hopefully it’s easy to see why I am passionate about this organization.
While I have been able to use my time and leadership skills to support the organization, last night Jayce “J-Ice” Miller did the organization an incredibly fun service. The current president of the organization, riding momentum that the organization has with members having returned from their Fall Break trips a couple of weeks ago, took advantage an open mic night at Poor David’s Pub in South Dallas to put on quite a rap show. Not only was the show a blast for everyone who attended, but all of the proceeds went directly to Alternative Breaks to make the trips that much more affordable for students. The crowd was comprised of a mix of Jayce’s friends and supportive members of Alternative Breaks, in addition to those who just happened to be there at the time.
The show was a great success! Of the four shows that we saw (two before, one after J-Ice), Jayce had the largest number of supporters, and really got the crowd moving. He got a shout out in the show immediately following his for having such great fans. The show provided excellent entertainment and supported a worthy cause, two things that I and many other SMU students are all about. SMU students support their community, at SMU and otherwise, in a number of ways, and the J-Ice show on Thursday is just one example of the extraordinary ways that we put our abilities to great use.
-Will O’Connor