Gustavus Adolphus College organizations represented campus internationally during Spring Break. Among these organizations was Habitat for Humanity, Students Today Leaders Forever, and Learning To Serve.
Habitat for Humanity sent groups to North Carolina, Tennessee and Lousiana to construct houses and rebuild communities. 75 volunteers traveled to help raise awareness on housing issues across the nation and aid Habitat for Humanity with their mission of providing affordable housing to families in need.
“We volunteered 780 hours of service and donated $4050 to Habitat for Humainity in Lafayette in order to achieve this goal,” Junior Physics and Mathematics Major Eric Wagner said.
The Habitat for Humanity trip has been an important service learning trip for students at Gustavus for many years. The unique volunteer opportunity is insightful and worthwhile for students.
“I believe that this trip was important because it gives students the opportunity to volunteer with a great organization and also provides necessary volunteers to the places where they are needed. I believe that this trip also teaches students the value of work as well as the sense of accomplishment in building something useful,” Wagner said.
In addition to the Habitat for Humanity trip, Students Today Leaders Forever revealed their leadership through service, relationships and action over Spring Break. Their nine day trip to six cities aimed to ‘Pay it Forward’ in as many communities as possible.
The group visited Rockford IL; Joliet, IL; Angola, IN; Akron, OH; Pittsburgh, PA; and Washington D.C.
“This year we made blankets, cleaned up neighborhoods of trash, cleaned up an automobile museum, posted flyers for the humane society, house demo and more,” Sophomore Management and Sociology and Anthropology Major Grace Holbrook said.
According to Holbrook, the trip is referred to as a “road trip on steroids” because 36 people on a coach bus are travelling across country to make a difference.
“We do stop for tourism but the focus is on service and the relationships we build along the way… We hope this trip will grow in popularity as it is a great avenue for students to find leadership opportunity,” Holbrook said.
According to the organization, service trips are meant to inspire students to be agents of change and reflect on themselves as future leaders.
Learning to Serve also offered their time over Spring Break, traveling to Petatlán, Mexico, St. Peter’s sister city.
“This trip is a little bit different. It is a service-learning program. The service is actually citizen diplomacy, which is what Sister Cities is founded upon and it is all about people to people contact,” Director for Community-Based Service and Learning in Center for Servant-Leadership and LALACS Professor Jeffrey Rathlef said.
According to Rathlef, citizen diplomacy is based off peace building between people of differing cultures to reach mutual understanding and empathy.
“The service emerges from the experience. It’s very much about meeting friends. We do projects in the community geared towards engagement,” Rathlef said.
There are four projects that the group worked on, including their first day where students had conversational English with some of the native youth to give them the opportunity to practice their English with native English speakers.
The second project took place in the local hospital where they struggle with resources. Heather Dale of Health Services at Gustavus attended and the group also brought donations. The students served as observers and offered their time to the hospital.
Learning To Serve also put together a story with some of the natives of Petatlán, which will be a children’s book available and published on Create Space Amazon.
Over the last two years, some of the professors in the Spanish department did various service learning courses, and students interviewed people of Petatlán about their values. The project was brought to Petatlán as a gift to create awareness about St. Peter after the banners that had been made on Petatlán two years ago.
-Haley Bell