- Spring break provides opportunities for service
While some of their peers are lounging on sunny beaches or visiting friends and family, groups of Valparaiso University students will put their faith into action during service trips to Illinois, North Dakota, New Orleans, and Central America.
Valpo’s Social Action Leadership Team is sponsoring three of the trips, which will take place during the first week of spring break, from March 3-9. Members of SALT will travel to areas of the country affected by poverty and natural disasters:
- Harvey, Ill. – Seven students are confirmed to travel to Harvey, just outside the city of Chicago, to volunteer with Restoration Ministries. This ministry works to serve people through their free, 18-month residential Christian training facilities, which assist, develop and train people who have overcome addiction to drugs and alcohol. Students going on this trip will work with the residents, who run a resale store and manage a food pantry. Past participants have also helped with after school tutoring and handing out meals on the street.
- Minot, N.D. – Seven students and one advisor, University pastor James Wetzstein, will go to North Dakota to help repair and clean-up from major floods that have impacted the area. The group will partner with Lutheran Social Services to help rebuild homes and do other projects to serve an area that faced major destruction in the wake of two severe floods last summer.
- New Orleans – The Chapel, in conjunction with the Union and the Office of Volunteer Programs, will be sending 12 students and one advisor, Aimee Tomasek, assistant professor of art, to New Orleans to help rebuild areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. For this trip, the Chapel is partnering with the CORE program to send additional students, for a total of 39 participants. Projects will include construction projects that help to rebuild homes and churches, or community projects such as working nursing homes or schools, or participating in restoring the eco-system in environmental projects.
“I became involved with the SALT spring break trips my sophomore year when I heard about the New Orleans opportunity” said Kathleen Parilac, a senior psychology major from Lowell, Ind., who is serving as the service and spring break trip coordinator this year. “The most meaningful thing I gained was a new perspective about the way of life in New Orleans. The city is unique and thriving, with a culture I had never experienced before. The residents of New Orleans were very gracious and optimistic – more than willing to share their stories about Hurricane Katrina, yet working to overcome the devastation of the past.”
Pastor Wetzstein, who participated in past trips to Kentucky and will be going to North Dakota this year, knows that students go on these trips expecting to use their gifts to help others, but what they may not expect is how much they will gain from the experience. For example, many of the residents at Restoration Ministries in Harvey have learned valuable leadership skills through their struggles to overcome addiction, and have a lot of wisdom to share.
“It was insightful to observe how adults working their way through the rehabilitation program were intent on preventing a younger generation from repeating their mistakes” said Krista Schaefer, a senior math major from Valparaiso who went on the trip to Harvey last year. “Harvey House opened my eyes to the circle of poverty, substance abuse, low educational expectations, unemployment and gangs. Looking back, what I remember most is ‘what a great spring break’.”
“The spirit of service and compassion is still something I carry with me today” said Parilac.
The University’s nursing students will also participate in service trips over spring break. A total of 23 students, along with three faculty and three alumni, will be participating in trips to Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Participants will provide health services in medical and dental clinics, as well as home visits.
“The health-related service trip to Central America is closely aligned with the mission and vision of the university” said Amy Cory, an assistant professor in the nursing department who is leading the trip. “This experience engages students in an international service learning experience, where they work with individuals, families, and communities toward a common goal of health. We work closely with local health authorities to ensure continuity of care before, during and after our trip. It has been said by students that this trip is a life-changing experience.”
“I went on the service trip to Central America last year through the College of Nursing and it was truly the best experience of my life” said Chelsea Zeman, a senior nursing major who will be participating in the trip again this year. “Working with the people there made me realize how blessed we are here in the United States and how much I take for granted every day. The people we work with have very little, but they are thankful for what they do have and are so grateful that people are willing to come and help them.”
The trip provides students with an opportunity to put classroom-learned skills into practice while gaining valuable cultural knowledge. Zeman said that in nursing she will encounter patients from various backgrounds and this experience has helped her to have a greater understanding of cultures different from her own.
“Working in Costa Rica and Nicaragua gives students a chance to learn a lot about health care, different cultures, and themselves” said Zeman. “People who go on this trip usually come back and say it was a life-changing experience, and I have to agree. I would recommend this trip to anyone, and am so excited to be going back again in March.”
To get involved with future trips, contact Kathleen Parilac (kathleen.parilac@valpo.edu) for the SALT trips or Dr. Amy Cory (Amy.Cory@valpo.edu) for the nursing trips.
More information can be found at www.valpo.edu/chapel/salt/index.php and www.valpo.edu/nursing.
