This year’s expanded service program opportunities include trips all over the United States and Mexico
By Jared Battaglia–Staff Writer &
Michael Travis–News Editor
At many colleges Spring Break is usually synonymous with suntans, relaxation and inebriation. However, here at Pepperdine students have an opportunity to make a difference in the world with Project Serve. This unique experience will send participants to several corners of the country and beyond for what will surely be an adventure of a lifetime.
Project Serve is a program offered through the Pepperdine Volunteer Center that provides students with a chance to do community service or ministry work in many different places around the United States and Latin America.
“Some of you will build houses, some will feed starving souls, some will visit with lonely invalids, and some will offer unconditional love to orphans,” the Project Serve section of the Pepperdine Volunteer Center’s Web site reads. “No matter what your assignment, you will directly impact the lives of hurting people, and you will be an ambassador of hope.”
According to senior Andrea Krug, Project Serve coordinator, the chance to participate in Project Serve is something that students shouldn’t miss.
“It’s an opportunity for students to do something with their spring break that is beyond themselves,” Krug said. “They can step out into the world and make a difference and affect people’s lives in a positive way.”
Last year, the 100 students that participated in the program traveled to four different locations. Due to positive feedback and increased student interest, about 300 students are expected to participate this year. They will travel to 18 different destinations, including cities in the United States, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
Volunteers will have the opportunity to mentor at risk youths, feed the homeless, build houses for the poor, work in soup kitchens, and work with AIDS patients, among other things.
Senior Robyn Shores will lead a team of volunteers to New York City to help a Christian organization that mentors at-risk youths from a Bronx neighborhood with high crime and drug rates.
“I worked at Camp Shiloh (in New York City) this summer and it was a life-changing experience,” Shores said. “I was challenged to use everything I’ve learned in school and life to help kids who desperately need it.”
Project Serve gives students a chance to become leaders as they work together on the projects from start to finish. In the weeks before their departure teams will build strength through fundraising efforts and event planning.
Participants go through intense training and preparation before they begin the program so they will get the most out of their experience. Emphasis is placed on team-building and leadership skills.
Upon arriving on site, some Pepperdine teams will witness firsthand the effects of poverty, disease, and abandonment, according to their Web site.
As a participant last year in the New York City team that volunteered at Ground Zero, Krug said that Project Serve “is a program designed to empower students to address both the tangible and the intangible needs of their fellow humans.”
This spring Junior Mere Carson plans to head up a team that will be based at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic. She predicts that “Project Serve will be a life changing experience and that God is just going to work in amazing ways.”
The diversity of locations that exists in the Project Serve roster will expose participants to exciting environments both in and outside the United States.
To pay for the costs of airline tickets and lodging, Carson and other team members will raise approximately 75 percent of their own funds through a Canned Food Drive Pledge-a-thon. This will include gathering food for local shelters in addition to soliciting donations for every can that they gather.
According to estimates done by Vanderbilt University, more than 30,000 students spent their Spring Breaks volunteering last year. The Pepperdine program program has already been able to significantly touch the lives of many, Krug said.
She noted that after last year a volunteer that the Pepperdine team worked with at Ground Zero sent the following e-mail: “Before last week all I knew about Pepperdine was that they played pretty good basketball, but after working with your group, I found out that Pepperdine produced some of the finest young men and women that I have had the privilege to meet. The way your students gave of their time, money and slept on the floor for a week to help others recover from the tragedy of 9/11 was really heart warming. I will always remember the young people from Pepperdine.”
Monday’s application deadline has been extended to Friday and students can apply online at www.pepperdine.edu/volunteercenter.
October 24, 2002