ISU students Pay It Forward in cross-country spring break tour

AMES, Iowa - (Iowa's News Now) — Students at ISU are back to class after spring break, but about 40 of those students have a unique vacation story to tell.

Iowa State's Pay It Forward group has spent every spring break since 2016 traveling cross-country to give back.

“The group started in 2015 on campus," says president Jacob Vos.

Back then the group was called Students Today, Leaders Forever.

“STLF for short," Vos says.

The service-oriented group was part of a national organization that dissolved in 2018.

“Most of the clubs ended up going away, but we kind of persevered," Vos says.

ISU's group had to figure out its own path forward to keep paying it forward. That was when they changed the name.

“That’s why I really like the name Pay It Forward," Vos says. "It can really apply to everything in life, right? You can pay it forward whether it’s a small thing or big thing and so I think it’s a really good motto to have beyond the name of a club.”

The nine-day tour takes the group to cities across the country over spring break. At each stop, they spend a few morning hours doing service projects before a short sightseeing stop.

“Travel to the next city in the afternoon hours, by evening hours we get to the next city, we sleep, then we do it all again," Vos says.

This year's trip stopped in St. Louis, where the students tore down and built new enclosures for the World Bird Sanctuary, then they stopped in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee for trash pickup.

One of the most memorable projects was in Virginia Beach's Chesapeake Bay, where the group learned about recycling oyster shells.

“They actually collect used oysters from restaurants and they can put them back in the water and refuel a new natural environment for those," Vos explains.

The trip ended in Washington D.C.

Vos says it's a valuable, memorable way to spend spring break.

“Not only are they volunteering, they’re paying to come on this experience," he says.

To keep costs down, meals are often donated or the group stays in churches. Wherever they go, their spirit of paying it forward is repaid.

They also meet new people from other states or countries, and that's just the fellow passengers on the ride.

“Bringing them all together," Vos says. "They don’t know each other, 78% of our bus this year didn’t know each other at all, they come together and now it’s one cohesive group in nine days.”

“It shows you the impact one small group of college kids can have," says one student on a video Vos created from the trip.

Thanks to our sponsors Carlos O'Kellys and Copyworks, $100 will be donated to the Food Bank of Iowa on behalf of ISU Pay it Forward.