The SEEDS Project launches new Richmond-based service initiative 'UR in RVA'

Recycling old electronics might not be the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions escaping the “Richmond bubble”. But for the members of The SEEDS Project, the best way to connect with the world outside of campus is service.

“We're so instituted in this little bubble that we don't know what's happening. We don't know the realities of the city,” said Quinton Jones, a junior and the Public Outreach and Recruitment chair of SEEDS. “So I think we do need to get out of these bounds more, and I think SEEDS in Richmond will help that.” 

SEEDS, short for Students Engaging & Enacting Dialogue on Service, is a student-led organization that hosts service-learning trips across the country during spring break. When President Adrian Grubbs, a senior, and the SEEDS executive board noticed a need for more accessible opportunities, they introduced  “UR in RVA with the SEEDS Project,” a new initiative that takes students into Richmond for service-learning projects. 

“It's a great way to get people out of the Richmond bubble and to get some service experience,” Grubbs said.

SEEDS had their first event of the initiative on Oct 18. at Central Virginia Waste Management’s inaugural recycling fair. Participants helped sort used electronics that will later be recycled into glass and metal. 

“This is really eye-opening,” said sophomore Melissa Pacaja, a Bonner scholar who volunteered with SEEDS at the event. “It just makes me think of my own family…throughout the years, how [many] devices have we accumulated and we just kind of dispose of or give to the Goodwill, which really just throws it away as well.”

Reflection is central to the mission of SEEDS. After every act of service, the members come together to have a dialogue about the work they engaged in and its significance to the surrounding communities.

“You might have seen things one way, another person will have seen them differently. Another person will have a history that they believe ties in and contextualizes a moment from that day. So it's just a great way to really get the most out of the experience,” Grubbs said.

The SEEDS Project began at UR in 2006, when students and faculty traveled to New Orleans to aid in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Since then, SEEDS has built long-standing relationships with non-profit organizations like The Bethesda Project in Philadelphia and the Charleston Climate Coalition in Charleston, W. Va. 

This year, SEEDS hopes to create similar relationships closer to home. They plan to work with the James River Association next semester. 

“One of the main initiatives for this semester is to get us more involved in the Richmond area. What I have been doing is emailing a lot of different nonprofit organizations in the Richmond area, seeing if they would like to be partners with SEEDS, if we could get a group of students out there to volunteer with them, and what opportunities they could offer us,” Jones said.

The UR in RVA initiative will take place alongside the organization’s traditional spring break trips. While SEEDS usually has three spring break trips, a lack of funding in recent years has cut them down to two. According to Grubbs, SEEDS is working toward departmental sponsorship to restore funding. 

“I've had a lot of conversations with people in CSI and CCE to work out funding. We're working towards departmental sponsorship, which makes things a lot easier,” Grubbs said. 

Junior Maya Basnyat participated in SEEDS’ 2023 spring break trip to Charleston during her freshman year. She says she made meaningful connections and gained a deeper understanding of environmental sustainability while on the trip. Basnyat hopes to continue her involvement with SEEDS and strengthen community partnerships, including with Southside Relief, a Richmond-based nonprofit she has worked with.

“Understanding all the interactions and ways that [communities] are connected was really meaningful to me, and especially as an environmental studies major, it really inspired me and gave me hope that there isn’t just one way to help your community,” Basnyat said.

Applications for SEEDS spring break trips opened early this month. Members who go on these trips will travel to Charleston, S.C. and Morgantown, W. Va.

Contact features writer Grayson Casey at grayson.casey@richmond.edu