Unlike the past two years, there will be no international BreakAway trip this summer.
Laura Megivern, coordinator of community services here at JSC, says that there is no one reason why there is no international trip planned, rather, many good reasons why the Center for Service Learning decided to hold back this year.
“We decided to take a break from the international trips to sort of focus on making sure that we can properly support them,” said Megivern. “We’ve gone really big in the past couple of years with Vietnam [Summer 2006] and then Tanzania [Summer 2007] and what we’ve found is that they take a lot of energy in terms of putting them together…it takes a lot.”
“So what we wanted to do,” said Megivern, “Is just step back, focus on our trips within the U.S., and then think about how to really support our international experiences better. And that is in terms of financial structure…pre-trip education and service as well as the re-entry.”
Megivern also posed the question of what, after having had the experience these trips offer, are the volunteers bringing back to the campus and what are they bringing back to the community. She mentioned that the Center for Service Learning is looking at some proposals for an international trip in the summer of 2009.
But for those students looking for something a little sooner, there are plenty of other opportunities offered by BreakAway within the United States, four of which have been planned for this spring semester. During February break there will be a group going to New Orleans to work the Hands On Network.
Over the April break, a group working with the organization Friendship House will be traveling to Washington D.C. to focus on youth issues and public education within urban settings. Also during April break a group will be in Cincinnati working on issues of homelessness and urban poverty with the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless as another group travels to Hillsboro, Oregon, to work at the Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve.
The Center for Service Learning also offers some local services several times a month focusing on a wide variety of issues and, as Megivern mentioned, they are looking to make these local services more sustainable and on-going rather than just one-time events. On Feb.1 first a volunteer group visited the North Country Animal League.
The CSL office also offers volunteering options through the Bonner Leader Program which was created last year. It is a part volunteering part internship program where students can work on a long-term scale with local organizations. To find out more about local services offered and how to get involved you can stop by the Center for Service Learning located in Dewey or e-mail Laura Megivern at Laura.Megivern@jsc.edu.