Nearly 200 WUSTL students will volunteer their time throughout the continent during spring break, Monday, March 8, through Friday, March 12.
Dozens of groups of students will travel to places as close as Chicago and as far away as Guatemala City, Guatemala, for service projects ranging from building construction and maintenance to helping at an orphanage.
“I’m always proud of the great care our student leaders take in deciding where to go and what projects to tackle over spring break,” said Stephanie Kurtzman, director of the Community Service Office and associate director of the Gephardt Institute for Public Service.
“Service trips offer an incredible learning experience that can have an impact on these students long after they leave the university,” Kurtzman said.
Sophomore Meghan Meyer will travel with a group of students from Brookings Residential College in the South 40 to the El Sauzal Orphanage in Ensenada, Mexico.
“We’ll be working with the children to teach them some English as well as play games with them and teach them other various activities,” Meyer said. “We will also be working to beautify and maintain the facility itself.
“We’ll be staying at the orphanage so we can better help and work with them,” Meyer said. “We will also get to help prepare meals and eat with the children. The whole experience should be great, and we’re all looking forward to it.”
The WUSTL chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity, is taking a group of 15 students to New Orleans for a five-day service trip.
The group will be working with the Phoenix of New Orleans and AmeriCorps organizations in lower mid-city New Orleans to develop community assets and rebuild affordable housing as the area continues to struggle nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina.
Seven students from the WULaw/International Law Society student group will travel to Chicago to volunteer with that National Immigrant Justice Center, which provides legal help to immigrants, refugees and asylees. The students will receive substantive hands-on legal experience while giving much-needed help to the organization.
Eleven students from the Catholic Student Center will be visiting the Lakota people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. The trip will offer students a chance for cultural exchange and immersion as they work on construction projects.
Students from the Campus Y will travel to Los Angeles to work with five organizations involved in HIV/AIDS outreach.
“Through our goals of immersion, exposure, service and learning in Los Angeles, we hope to come away with the information necessary to become leaders in our own communities to promote our firsthand understanding of HIV/AIDS,” said junior Alice Gu.
For more information or to help organize a volunteer service trip next year, call Kate Durso at (314) 935-3942.