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The College of New Jersey Magazine
home arrive. "I was all chilled — it
didn't feel like it was real, like that's
going to be my family's house," says
Senait, who first applied for a Habitat
house six years ago. "My kids can't
wait until they have their own back-
yard where they can be free. We've
worked so hard only for them."
"My students knew it was for a
family, but being able to really look at
them and to say, 'My name is Nick, and
I helped to build your home,' was really
something," says Caccavale, who plans
to build two more homes with his
students and Morris Habitat over the
next four years. "When they're older,
these students could be driving around
with their own kids, and they could
pass by this home and say, 'I built that.'
How neat is that going to be?"
■
Kevin Coyne is a freelance writer
who teaches at Columbia University's
Graduate School of Journalism.
Clockwise from top:
The Tesfaye family on the deck of their
new home; Samuel and Senait Tesfaye
were chosen out of the 40 applicants
for the new home in Roxbury; the final
product — a complete house built from
the ground up by 35 students.
