Approaching the fall semester of my senior year, I was filled with a plethora of emotions that most college students in their last year would be experiencing. I wanted to finish my time at Loyola with a bang, and more importantly the feeling of resolution. I didn’t want to leave college with the sense of something I could have done, that I missed out on. So far I have done pretty well.
In the last few years, the Mission and Ministry office at Loyola has developed immersion trips available to students that take them abroad and have an international volunteer service opportunity. There are trips to Jamaica and Belize that are over the summer as well as Christmas break. The trips can last from 12 days to 3 weeks.
I was fortunate to be selected to be one of ten students invited to the Jamaica program over this past Christmas break. Instead of lying around in Baltimore after Christmas with nothing exciting to do but think about my return to New Orleans as I would usually find myself, I spent it in Kingston, Jamaica facilitating a camp for children grades 1-6 in a very impoverished neighborhood called Mona Commons. The trip was 12 days long, and each one was much unlike the other.
We also spent time at Mother Teresa’s Hospital giving a hand and another school for young children in Riverton City. Aside from service and helping those in need, the trip was filled with many exciting activities. I was able to have a tour of Bob Marley’s original home of the government yard in Trenchtown, where Reggae was born… every time I listen to No Woman no Cry, I can smile and relate in a new way.
When I was a freshman at Loyola, the Gulf Coast was battered by Hurricane Katrina. It did not take me long after that to realize the impact volunteering can have on a community. While Loyola has been very involved with making sure students have the opportunities to volunteer locally, if they choose to, there is now also the option to apply to go abroad and lend a hand. I have come to realize how fortunate I am after going on this immersion trip. I have brought back new views and realizations that I would not have found on a ski mountain or sitting at home over break. Come May 2009, I’ll have no regrets.
