Calvin students ready to serve during Spring Break

On Friday, March 15, 140 students, faculty and staff will depart from Calvin
and travel to 14 different locations nationwide for service-learning spring
break trips.

Organizers say the annual trips are opportunities for students to lend their
minds and muscle to an array of nonprofit organizations. "It gives students an
opportunity to serve and learn instead of an opportunity for a more
self-indulgent time," said Noah Kruis, associate director in Calvin's
service-learning center.
One of those locations is Rehoboth, New Mexico, where students will learn
about Navajo culture while encouraging college readiness. "We're visiting
different high schools and middle schools to talk about college going. Mostly
we're hoping that students get inspired by some of the students who are in
college," said Berniz Constanza, a recruitment coordinator with Calvin's office
of pre-college programs (PCP) who will accompany the Rehoboth trip.
Calvin students will teach the middle and high schoolers how to complete
college and financial aid applications and how to prepare for the ACT and SAT
tests. They will also encourage the students to form mentoring relationships to
help them through the high school/college transition.
The Rehoboth trip will be a home-going for student coordinator Tonisha Begay,
who was introduced to Calvin through Entrada, PCP's summer internship program.
"That's kind of like my introduction to college work," she said. Begay is eager
for her fellow Calvin students to experience her native culture, particularly
some of the challenges--poverty, lack of education, lack of opportunity--faced
by the Navajo people. "It's more meaningful for them to actually see it and
experience it," she said.
That philosophy is behind all of the Spring Break Trips, which Calvin has
sponsored for more than three decades. This year, students will learn about
housing and the arts in Baltimore, Maryland; urban community development in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Christian community development in Jackson,
Mississippi; racial reconciliation and homelessness in Americus, Georgia and
Chicago, Illinois; hurricane relief in Grand Isle and Houma, Louisiana; coal
mining and culture in Kermit, West Virginia; art and culture in Three Rivers,
Michigan; and urban revitalization in St. Louis, Missouri. Students will work
with mentally disabled adults in Mobile, Alabama and with at-risk women in
Knoxville, Tennessee and do hiking and trail maintenance in the Great Smoky
Mountains.
Many of the trips represent Calvin's longstanding partnerships with the
various spring break nonprofits. Calvin sends groups year after year to these
sites. Sometimes, the same students go multiple years. Sometimes, they continue
going as alums. They learn about the communities and forge lasting friendships
with the residents.
For more information, contact Noah Kruis at 616-450-5127.
NOTE: Most trips will take off from the Covenant Fine Arts Center parking lot
at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 16 (following a pizza party in the Commons Lecture
Hall). 

-end-

Matt Kucinski
Media Relations Manager
Calvin College
msk23@calvin.edu
616.526.8935 (office)
616.307.7429 (cell)
Received on Fri Mar 15 11:00:08 2013