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During the winter interim, members of Alternative School Break (ASB) were hard at work serving communities in Nashville, Tenn.; San Francisco, Calif.; and Lagunitas, Honduras.
Ten students traveled to Nashville to work with Catholic Charities on helping refugees from Somalia and Sudan learn how to use public transportation, fill out employment applications, and improve their English skills. Catholic Charities also helps refugees secure apartments and furnish their new homes. The ASB team also helped clean a disabled woman’s apartment and led a workshop on cultural differences and social norms.
“Our team learned a lot about refugees in general, including the fact that many are forced to flee from their homes and stay in refugee camps from days to years,” says civil engineering major Nancy Parker ’09 (Mystic, Conn.), who was team leader for the Nashville project. “When they are finally placed somewhere like Nashville, they have no choice in the matter. They are just grateful that they have somewhere to go. When they arrive in the new country, they are thrown into society instantly; kids struggle in English-speaking classes and adults struggle finding and maintaining jobs.”
Joining Parker in Nashville were American studies major Amanda Barba ’08 (Palisades, N.Y.), government and law major Meredith Burrell ’08 (New Rochelle, N.Y.), American studies major Kathryn Davis ’09 (Towson, Md.), Stephanie Fosbenner ’10 (Perkasie, Pa.), international affairs and French double major Jillian Gaeta ’07(Middletown, N.J.), psychology major Elizabeth Jenkins ’07(Greenwich, Conn.), English major Danielle Koupf ’08 (Randolph, N.J.), biology major Torin Perez ’09 (Brooklyn, N.Y.), and psychology major Leslie Wetzel ’09 (Dallas, Pa.). Lauren Ibbotson, assistant director of student life programs, was the team’s adviser.
“We all had a great experience and took a lot away from the refugees,” says Parker. “They were very grateful and wonderful people to work with. We were shocked at how willing they were to learn and how much they wanted to fit in and succeed in the U.S. We had a great time, and I would go again in a second.”
A team of eight students spent a week in San Francisco working with Project Open Hand and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Project Open Hand serves meals and gives groceries to people who are in need and do not receive government aid, including the elderly and AIDS patients throughout the city. The ASB team helped package meals and bags for those in need. It also helped the San Francisco AIDS Foundation package clean needles, which are traded for used ones.
“As a team, we were able to realize first-hand and exercise ways of overcoming obstacles that typically prevent many from caring on a personal level about world issues like AIDS and HIV that may seem far away,” says team leader Samira Fowler ’07 (Dingmans Ferry, Pa.), a civil engineering major. “I will never forget the great sense of fulfillment that came over my team and me as we watched the customers walk out with a smile knowing they had food for another week. The opportunity to directly witness the positive effects of our work was priceless. It was more than a simple reward; it actually further fueled our efforts in the days that followed.”
The San Francisco team consisted of biochemistry major Jillian Carinci ’08 (Wilmington, Del.), biology major Jessica Majewski ’07 (East Granby, Conn.), neuroscience major Marissa Malcolm ’07 (West Caldwell, N.J.), biology major Matthew Pennisi ’07(Schuylkill Haven, Pa.), French major Elizabeth Roman ’09 (Lancaster, Pa.), Emanuel Santa-Donato ’10 (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.), and Sarah Schwartz ’09 (Scotch Plains, N.J.). Diane Elliott’74, director for public service at the Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Government, was the team’s adviser.
“A major benefit of this experience was being able to share it with others who placed similar value on it,” says Fowler. “I learned that the issues facing our world are not always as far away as they seem. Change is within reach, but it would appear that it is up to us to reach for that change.”
Six students traveled to the village of Lagunitas in the Yoro district of central Honduras to work with Lafayette’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and Sustainable Harvest. They spent 11 days in the region learning about sustainable development and helping install a portion of a water system. They dug holes under water taps, which allow the water to percolate back into the ground, preventing mosquito activity and erosion in the areas where the taps are located.
“I think the whole team had to reevaluate and reflect on what it thought about the culture – what was different in Honduras as opposed to the U.S. and at the same time, what was the same,” says Molly Lieber ’09 (Scarsdale, N.Y.), who led reflection each day on the trip. “We also talked about parts of the culture that we really admired, and other parts that we would not want to be included in. Honduras is a great experience, and I would encourage others to go.”
ASB members who traveled to Lagunitas include team leader Oscar Ayala ’09 (Kendall Park, N.J.), philosophy major Sarah Belliotti ’09 (Buffalo, N.Y.), Spanish and environmental studies double major Amanda DeLoureiro ’07 (Farmington, Conn.), Jessica DeLoureiro ’10 (Farmington, Conn.), and psychology and government & lawdouble major Stephanie Mishik ’07 (Mantua, N.J.). Michael Benitez, director of intercultural development, was the team’s adviser.
Members of Lafayette’s chapter of EWB who accompanied the ASB team to Honduras include Michael Adelman ’10 (Clarks Summit, Pa.); Kaydence Cowley ’07(Littleton, Colo.), a mechanical engineering major; Camila Galaz ’07 (Quakertown, Pa.), an economics and business major; Margaret Garcia ’07 (Stamford, Conn.), who is pursuing a B.S. civil engineering and A.B. with a major in international studies; Frank Giannelli ’07 (Berkeley Heights, N.J.), an A.B. engineering major; and Isaias Rivera ’09 (Elizabeth, N.J.).
Garcia recently presented EWB’s research on sustainable water systems in Honduras at an international conference in Brazil. A team of 16 students entered the Environmental Protection Agency’s P3: People, Prosperity and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability and garnered national attention after receiving a $75,000 award to continue its work in Honduras.
Gaeta, who traveled to Nashville, and Mishik, who participated in the Lagunitas project, attended the ASB national conference in San Francisco this past summer. They worked with Project Open Hand, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and other organizations to learn more about the lives of those with HIV and AIDS.
For the last 13 years, Lafayette’s chapter of Alternative School Break has traveled throughout the U.S. and abroad for community service projects. In the past, it has focused on issues such as sustainable development, affordable housing, Native American issues, and hunger and homelessness.