Catholic environment motivates seniors to serve
By KATE NAGENGAST
News Writer
After four years of academic struggles to obtain a college degree, few students might imagine themselves traveling to all ends of the earth to serve others. Something in the Notre Dame and Saint Mary's community, however, changes that expectation for the approximately 10 percent of each graduating class who consistently commit to post-graduate service work.
Typically drawn into service work by a Summer Service Project, the Appalachian Seminar or even South Bend community service projects like Christmas in April, 77 percent of Notre Dame undergraduates are active in social service.
"I think there are a number of motivations [for doing post-graduate service work]," said Andrea Smith-Shappell, director of the Senior Transitions Programs at the University's Center for Social Concerns (CSC). "But I think for many there is such a great atmosphere for service and social concerns on this campus … that throughout their four years it has been a growing interest for them."
"I think a lot of students want to do [post-graduate service] because they've been given so much and they want to give back," said Sister Linda Kors, director of the Spes Unica Resource Center (SURV) at Saint Mary's. "Some students may be doing it to help focus what they want to do with the rest of their lives."
Although the seniors will be involved in more than 44 different service organizations next year, the programs with the most Notre Dame and Saint Mary's participants are those represented on the University's campus: the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) and the Holy Cross Associates. ACE volunteers are placed throughout the southern states to complete two years of service as teachers in under-served Catholic schools. Holy Cross Associates sends volunteers throughout the United States and into Chile to participate in a variety of programs including teaching, casework, elderly outreach, HIV/AIDS support and children's and women's issues.
"I decided to do ACE because I knew I wanted to teach and I really like the way the ACE program balances spirituality, community living and the profession of teaching," said Martha Gibney, a Spanish major who has committed her next two years to teaching a primarily Hispanic fourth grade class in Kansas City.
The commitment ACE makes to the profession of education – by "teaching its teachers" with eight weeks of education classes during the summer before entering the first year of teaching, and another eight weeks of classes during the summer between the first and second year – is incredible, said Gibney.
However, Rachel Lustig felt her calling a little further away than most students.
"I always wanted to do service," she said. "After being abroad in Australia, I decided to go abroad for service work as well."
As a volunteer for the Holy Cross Associates in Chile, Lustig will work closely with the diocese in Santiago for 2 1/2 years, specifically dedicated to work in an orphanage.
"I have a feeling this experience will open me up to some opportunities," Lustig, a finance major, said. "I don't expect to go back into business, but I expect to use my degree."
In addition to these programs there are a number of volunteer services growing in popularity, including Boys Hope Girls Hope, an Americorps program and Life Treatment Centers-Wilson Foundation, whose executive director, Father Steve Newton, is also the rector of Sorin Hall. Boys Hope Girls Hope provides value-centered, family-like homes for children who must overcome unpromising backgrounds or compromising environments throughout the United States. Life Treatment Centers is working to establish addiction treatment centers in Africa.
Boys Hope appealed to Kevin Chu because of its "real life applications." As a volunteer in Jacksonville, Fla., Chu will be living with six boys and two other volunteers. The volunteers each commit for a year to take on the responsibilities of a parent to the children.
"I chose this because I like working with children and it just seemed like Boys Hope has very good intentions … it was a program I'd like to support," he said.
When Newton made the decision to leave his position as rector of Sorin Hall to work for the Wilson Foundation in Africa, Peter Camilli and Ruth Luckas could not resist joining him.
"I am always trying to get students involved in volunteering," said Newton.
After much discussion throughout the year it was decided that Camilli and Luckas would work closely with Newton in an addiction treatment center, one of four just forming in East Africa.
"I hope to develop it into something that could be pretty regular," said Newton. "Even if the students don't have any life-long commitment to it, it will always be part of how they approach things in this first world."
While many post-graduate service programs provide students with a chance to do very concentrated and selfless work for a year or two, Rocio Rodriguez, a business major at Saint Mary's chose to dedicate herself to a non-profit organization.
Rodriguez will join the Back of the Yards Neighborhood Council, a community development organization in Chicago aimed at Mexican immigrants. Rodriguez will join the staff as the small business development center director – helping people to start their own small businesses, develop financial planning, request grants from the state and even stay in business long-term.
"I just really wanted to get into helping people within the community," she said. "A lot of people ask me why I didn't want to do the corporate route right away, but this is something that I really want to do. I've done the corporate stuff before through internships, but I have a passion for this."
All News Stories for Friday, May 19, 2000
