Spring Break Trips Engage Students in Other Cultures
Spiritan Campus Minister Kate Lecci, who participated in the migrant farmworker experience in Florida, shares how Duquesne students, faculty and staff share of themselves and learn about others over spring break.
During spring break, more than 60 students, faculty and staff traveled to three different locations on Spiritan Campus Ministry’s annual Cross-Cultural Mission Experiences (CCMEs).
The purpose of a CCME is not simply to visit a location and serve the area for a week. It is about engaging in a culture entirely different from one’s own, meeting people of the community and understanding the needs of the group. Through daily reflection, group members gain deeper insights about the area and themselves.
Modeled in the Spiritan tradition of outreach, the goal of these trips to for students to understand a principle taken from the 1998 Spiritan General Chapter, “We go to a people not primarily to accomplish a task, but rather to be with them, live with them, walk beside them, listen to them and share our faith with them. At the heart of our relationship is trust, respect and love.”
This year’s CCMEs included:
Appalachian Experience: Students helped to repair flood-damaged homes and worked with the local St. Vincent de Paul Society in Mullens, W.Va. While there, students learned about the effects of the coal-mining and logging industries and had the opportunity to talk with members of the community to gain better insight on life in West Virginia’s southern coal regions.
Migrant Farmworker Experience: In Immokalee, Fla., students partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to advocate for better wages and working conditions in Florida’s tomato fields. Learning what it means to be in solidarity first-hand, students worked with coalition allies, gained insight from community members and served in a variety of social services to see the full picture of a migrant farmworker’s life in southwest Florida.
Hurricane Katrina Relief Work: In 2008, students traveled for the first time to New Orleans to repair homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Nine years after the hurricane, volunteers are still needed as residents attempt to rebuild the New Orleans that they know and love. Exploring the culture through Creole cuisine and jazz, the students gained a unique experience working in such a historical city.
To read more about the Migrant Farmworker Experience and the Hurricane Katrina Relief Work Experience, please visit the CCMEs blogs.