This upcoming summer, Jesuit students and faculty will be going on two service trips, one to Nicaragua and the other to Alaska. Mr. Richard Perry is in charge of the trip to Nicaragua, which thirty-five students will go on, along with Mr. Keith Reese, Ms. Madeline Maggard, Mr. Raul Ornelas, and Mr. Tim Murphy. Meanwhile, Mrs. and Mr. Mattacchione and Mr. Chris Patterson are taking twelve students on the trip to Alaska. Both trips will provide students with the opportunity to help those who have very little.
Before the trip to Nicaragua, Mr. Perry visited the area so he could see all the places they will go to. He decided which places were best to teach the students about the poverty inf Nicaragua and which would provide the students with an understanding of the social injustices, languages, and culture. Jesuit will partner with the local Catholic Church and Jesuit high schools in Managua, Colegio Centroamerica and Loyola Escuela de Managua, to perform community service. Jesuit worked with both of these schools on trip last year and would like to further the relationships that are being built.
While on their trip, they will work on service projects with the Jesuit schools, which are sponsoring a local elementary school and an orphanage, and they will be preparing and serving food every morning for the elderly that live on the streets of Managua, through a Carmelite parish. The students will also go to the countryside to learn about organic and sustainable farming as well as farming cooperatives where people are guaranteed a fair wage.
Lastly, they will work with a nursing home in Leon. Half the students will work with elderly people, an answer to the gospel call to visit when someone is lonely, and the other half will help with repair work. Then, the two groups will switch roles. Mr. Perry believes that the trip will provide a great opportunity for the students and had this to say about the goals of the trip: “I want our students to come away from this experience with a greater sense of the responsibilities that they have as young men who have resources. Also, I want them to come away with respect for another culture.”
Will Eigenbrodt ’16, who went on the trip last year, had this to say about his experience, “Going to Nicaragua was an experience that I wish everyone could have. Working everyday in a community that cared, amongst my Jesuit brothers and sisters, really helped develop me from an awkward freshmen into a sophomore on my way to being a man for others. I got not only new friends, but firsthand experience to an entirely new culture, language, and way of life that burst the American bubble I was living in.”
Like Mr. Perry, Mr. Mattachione went on a pre-trip to Alaska where he met with the Immaculate Conception Church and Jesuit Volunteer Corps in order to plan the trip. On the trip, the students will serve others by helping the elderly, the poor, and the environment. They will help out at the Tundra Women’s Center for battered women and children and an alternative learning center for teens that live in villages that want to go past grade 12 or get their GED. The students will also be working with the Ed Kauffman Senior Center to make meals in the morning. Then in the afternoon, they will work with the seniors providing companionship.
Lastly, the students will work at the Bethel family clinic, where they will clean, paint, shred old documents, and enter info into new computers that the clinic recently bought. Mr. Mattachione wants the students to understand that many people in Alaska do not have basic living necessities that most Americans have. Mr. Mattacchione had this to say about his goals for trip, “When Mrs. M and I visited, one thing we forget is that even though Alaska is apart of the U.S., it’s a totally different frontier, it’s the undiscovered country within the United States that truly needs our help, and I want our students to see this and act on it.”
Both trips will provide the students with the chance of gaining an understanding of how many people in the world live. The trips will help them realize what is truly necessary to live, and help those who are in grave need of it.
