Trip Goals
and Purpose
The Geraldine Doyle Riordan Center for Volunteerism and Service-Learning
sponsors a week-long community service trip every spring break
in collaboration with the Office of Campus Ministry. Interested
students travel to rural or urban areas to provide volunteer
labor at food banks, Habitat for Humanity construction sites,
thrift stores, tutoring programs, health care facilities and
other programs. Throughout the intense week of service and
community living, students assist with site management, food
preparation and reflection activities. Trip destinations have
included West Virginia, Mississippi, Maryland, New York and
Washington D.C.
Requirements
Volunteers pay a nominal fee for the trip and are selected
upon successful completion of a thorough application and interview
process. Students are prepared for their experience through
mandatory orientation and training sessions before departing
on the trip. Students and attending staff participate in group
meetings and reflection sessions during the trip, as well
as a post-trip reflection meeting.
Student Leaders
A student, who has previously been on a Spring Break service
trip, is chosen as the student leader for each new trip. The
leadership role includes helping with training, trouble shooting
problems, organizing work assignments and leading reflection
sessions. The student leader also participates in the site
selection, training and promotion of the following year's
Spring Break service trip.
Scrapbook of
Recent Trips
2002 - Newburgh,
NY
A group of CSE students spent a week in Newburgh, NY helping
the local affiliate of Habitat for Humanity build and renovate
decent, affordable housing for families in need. The CSE group
was generously housed by local residents in an 1890's house
with a scenic view of the Hudson River right in the neighborhood
where they were working. The CSE volunteers worked primarily
on a Women Build house, a new Habitat initiative to encourage
women to join Habitat's construction projects. The group also
volunteered at a soup kitchen in order to more fully immerse
themselves in the issues faced by the Newburgh community.
Students explored issues such as urban blight, poverty, homelessness
and lack of access to affordable housing.
2001 - New
York City, NY
Each day the CSE group traveled from a hostel - their home
for the week - in the heart of Time Square to a different
social service organization. Time was spent touring Convent
House, a crisis center for homeless adolescents; caring for
toddlers in its Mother Child Program; and sorting donated
clothing in its Crisis Center. The group also spent a day
at Housing Works, which provides housing, job training, health
care, and other services to homeless people with HIV/AIDS.
After receiving an orientation to the agency, the group sorted
and organized hundreds of books in the organization's used
bookstore café, whose proceeds are used to help fund
the agency's programs. The group also worked with Momentum
AIDS Project, which provides New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS
with hot meals, pantry bags and support services in a communal
setting in their own neighborhoods. The CSE students helped
Momentum prepare and serve meals at the Stephen Wise Free
Synagogue, one of its dinner program sites.
2000 - Washington
D.C.
A group of volunteers spent the week in the nation's capital
exploring the contrast between the poverty in some areas and
the cultural opportunities available in others. Volunteers
helped the staff of Martha's Table, a meal program for the
homeless, prepare more than four hundred meals to be taken
to homeless men and women in area parks. The student volunteers
also worked with Food & Friends to prepare and deliver
food to people living with AIDS. Time was also spent talking
about the college experience to area school children and visiting
the American Holocaust Museum.
1999 - Philadelphia,
PA
Each day, students traveled to a different area of the city,
exploring issues such as homelessness, domestic violence and
poverty. The group worked with Mercy House, a homeless shelter
for women and children; a residence for women in crisis pregnancies
run by an alumni; Kairos House, a home for mentally ill homeless
people; Euphrasia House, a battered women's shelter run by
the Sisters of Mercy; a soup kitchen; and the Good Shepherd
House, a residency for men with HIV/AIDS.
1998 - York,
PA
Student volunteers worked with a local chapter of Habitat
for Humanity to renovate homes for local families in need.
In addition, Saint Elizabeth students were paired with a group
from another college from the beginning of the planning process
to arrange meals, activities and work assignments.
1997 - Sussex
County, NJ
During this Backyard Plunge, participants learned about the
social issues faced by residents of Sussex County. Each day
the group assisted at a different agency. Students put in
new floor tile at a transitional multi-family apartment for
homeless families. At the Manna House Soup Kitchen, students
prepared and served food to local residents. Two mornings
were spent doing yard work and sorting food at Birth Haven,
a home for pregnant women. The Sussex ARC also welcomed the
group's help at their developmental training sites throughout
the county. But the most popular site among students was the
Habitat for Humanity project where the students cleared brush
and logs in the cold rain and snow.
1996 - Upstate
New York
During their time at Saint Francis Farm, students developed
a greater understanding of life for the rural poor, the need
for community support and the meaning of service. Saint Elizabeth
students, along with students from the University of Pennsylvania
participated in four service projects over five days. At St.
Francis Farms, a renovated farm operating in the tradition
of a Catholic Worker House, students helped prepare meals
and perform maintenance on the farm buildings and grounds.
At Unity Acres, a shelter for homeless men, students and residents
painted, laid flooring and cooked lunch. Students also helped
clean, paint and renovate the home of a disabled man. Finally,
they set up a hospitality house on the shore of Lake Oneida.
Requirements
