Calvin Students to Serve on Spring Break

March 8, 2007 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Summary: This spring break some 60 Calvin students will travel far and wide
to serve, and learn, including a trio of trips with a Katrina focus.

Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/slc-trips.htm

Every year during spring break, a sizeable contingent of Calvin College
students forgoes the traditional exodus to the beach for a chance to work in
some less exotic communities.

This year, from Friday, March 16 through Saturday, March 24, 60 Calvin
students and five mentors will participate in a quintet of service-learning
spring break trips.

The goal of the trips—three of which will involve ongoing Katrina
relief—is not merely service, but learning, says Calvin associate director
of service-learning Lori Gesink.

“We don’t kid ourselves to think that one week of going somewhere and
doing something is making a major difference in the lives of people we’re
going to work alongside,” Gesink maintains. “So our goal is that students
will be exposed to learning opportunities that they might not glean in any
other learning situation, and, through the process of conversation and
reflection, that their understanding for social issues and justice might be
expanded.”

Calvin students, who pay for the service-learning trips out of their own
pockets, earn Cross Cultural Engagement (CCE) credit for participating. And
Gesink says the service-learning experience benefits the students as much as
they do the communities they visit.

Destinations will include Boston, Rehoboth, New Mexico, Franklinton, Louisiana
(where students will work with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee),
Chalmette, Louisiana (working with evangelist Franklin Graham’s Samaritan's
Purse) and Houma, Louisiana.

The last-mentioned trip will be mentored by Dan Vandersteen, a counselor in
Calvin’s Broene Center, who will be working on Katrina efforts in Houma for
the second time. Vandersteen had his first introduction to the community in
Katrina’s immediate wake in 2005.

The Houma trip is a good example of the intentional, long-term partnerships
Calvin tries to build through the service-learning trips, says Gesink.

Contact Lori Gesink at 616-526-6581
Full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/slc-trips.htm

-end-
Received on Thu Mar 8 08:33:10 2007