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Alternative spring break trips proved beneficial not only for the organizations where ������Ƶ students volunteered their time and efforts, but for many of the students themselves.

The Center for Outreach, Volunteerism, and Education and the Office of the Chaplains organized several trips for students looking to do something meaningful with their time away from campus.

Two students — Griffin O’Shea ’13 and Jennifer Viera ’13 — volunteered at in Edmeston, N.Y., a residential community for children and adults with Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities.

O’Shea and Viera spent their week working with residential and day students at Pathfinder’s school, which serves 26 children.

They moved the school’s library from a small office to a larger area and assisted students in their daily lessons. Their evenings were spent participating in the recreation and enrichment programs that are offered to all 80 residents.

“I’ve known some people who have had Down syndrome before, but not well,” said Viera. “This is a great way to get to know kids in their home environment. They seem so free-spirited; it taught me the lesson that we should always try to enjoy life.”

The two students will host Pathfinder residents when they visit campus for a show at the Ho Tung Visualization Lab at the Ho Science Center.

“Griffin and Jennifer really got to know our residents during their time here,” said Paul Landers, chief executive officer for Pathfinder. “You already can tell they will be fantastic leaders in whatever careers they choose, and will be great advocates for people who have disabilities.”

Daniel Lasker ’10 takes a run and generates some smiles with a youngster from Las Palmillas in the Dominican Republic.  SEE MORE IMAGES (Photo by Julia Quintanilla ’10)

 

While Edmeston is only about 35minutes from campus, other students traveled as far as the Dominican Republic during spring break.

Nine students and a COVE staff member volunteered with the Community Service Alliance in the village of Las Palmillas.

For Julia Quintanilla ’10, the experience in the village was a gratifying mix of physical labor and workshop instruction.

The ������Ƶ group chiseled holes in cinder blocks to accommodate wiring and plumbing for a newly constructed community center, and dug ditches for outside piping.

They also led workshops for women in the village who are designing unique dolls they want to sell in hotels and souvenir shops, in a bid to build the local economy.

The sessions involved team-building techniques, letter-writing campaigns, and accounting practices.

“Meeting these amazing women and having the opportunity to work with them was an incredible experience for us all,” said Quintanilla. “We learned so much from them about what it really means to be a community and work together.

“The trip was by far the most memorable experience I’ve had, and the most eye-opening,” she added.

Other COVE students traveled to the Oglala Lakota Nation on Pine Ridge Reservation, S.D., for community building, and New Bern, N.C., for Habitat for Humanity.

Through the ������Ƶ Jewish Union (CJU), students traveled to New York City to volunteer at schools in Harlem and prepare kosher-for-Passover packages to send to the elderly. The University Church sent a team to Jamaica for service work, and members of the Newman Community traveled to Vatican City.