We’ll All Ride On: Bike Rides Bring Communities Closer
By: Chris Diorio
“It’s more than just a bike ride,” Assistant Professor Wanda Taylor confides to me over the stark white table we share. We sit inside a mock hospital ward on the second floor of Edwards Hall. The bleach-cleaned surroundings seemed to add vibrancy and weight to Taylor’s words — the words of someone with an admirable care for others.
The bike club allows younger students to interact with their older Clemson mentors. “Those rides became a chance to understand and blend different cultures and communities,” she affirms. In that bare-white room, I learned a lesson on the complexity of diversity and how time spent on a bike trail could translate into time spent learning to care for others.
The Fundamentals of Nursing course is offered to accelerated second-degree nursing students during their first semester in order to introduce them to the basic principles and practices of professional nursing. Taylor began to notice an ironic flaw with the program as her students began to delve deeper into their coursework.
The bike club allows younger students to interact with their older Clemson mentors. “Those rides became a chance to understand and blend different cultures and communities,”
With the same care she projected throughout our interview together, Taylor expressed her concerns about her students’ well-being. “It’s more than just a bike ride,” Assistant Professor Wanda Taylor confides to me over the stark white table we share. We sit inside a mock hospital ward on the second floor of Edwards Hall. The bleach-cleaned surroundings seemed to add vibrancy and weight to Taylor’s words — the words of someone with an admirable care for others. Carly DeBruhl and the bike club riders stop at a playground mid-ride. “I found that students began caring so much about helping others, they stopped paying as much attention to their own wellness.”
In order to create a program where students could practice simultaneously caring for others and themselves, Taylor reached out to the Momentum Bike Club located in Greenville, SC. “We had trouble recruiting members,” Taylor explained. “It was difficult getting this new and different community to accept our students and their program. We needed help reaching these families.” The answer came from local church group leaders in Greenville who believed in Taylor’s cause. After partnering with prominent members of the community, the Momentum Bike Club began to flourish. “We began with only a few girls, but now the program has grown tremendously,” Taylor said. “The kids love the rides. It gives them something to do,” graduate nursing student and bike club mentor Carly DeBruhl said. DeBruhl has fun with the younger girls she rides with, joking that they all ride to burn calories and get in shape for summer. After beginning the program with only a few members, the bike club has grown into double digits, with multiple biking groups partaking in different degrees of difficulty.
“We had trouble recruiting members,” Taylor explained. “It was difficult getting this new and different community to accept our students and their program. We needed help reaching these families.”
The future for the program is bright, as Taylor plans to continue and hopefully grow the program in the coming semesters. “Once people realize you’re committed to them and not just acting for yourself, that’s when you can begin to build relationships,” Taylor said.
Written By: Chris Diorio
Chris Diorio graduated with a Communications Studies major in spring 2015. He is from Middletown, New Jersey. On Clemson’s campus he was the Assistant Director of Organizations for CUSG, a senator on the Finance and Procedures committee for our undergraduate student senate, and the Vice President of Recruitment of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
