Record Number of Students Engage in Community Service Over Spring Break

The Holy Cross Chaplains’ Office reports that 309 students — or one in 10 students at the College — are spending their spring break this week doing community service. This is the largest group in the 36-year history of the Spring Break Immersion Program.

“I believe it grows each year through word of mouth,” says Martin Kelly, assistant chaplain who oversees the program. “A growing segment of the College community has this experience each year, and they come back and tell friends about the impact it had and the circle widens quite naturally.”

Students are working in 26 different locations in 12 states across the country, including sites in Appalachia, Camden, N.J., Pine Ridge, S.D., and El Paso, Texas. This is up from the 16 locations where students lived and worked last year.

Students will work on range of activities depending on the site. “Students in Appalachia will do quite a bit of home repair, some will work in schools, soup kitchens, others with a women’s shelter, and still others with migrant workers in Colorado,” Kelly says.

For the first time in the program’s history, 36 students will spend Spring Break in immersion experiences at L'Arche communities in six cities across the country. L’Arche is a faith-based international federation of people with and without intellectual disabilities.

Kelly gives much of the credit to this year’s expansion of the program, both in terms of sites and student participation, to co-chairs Christina Polachi ’11, a philosophy and religious studies double major from Sherborn, Mass., and Patrick Teebagy ’11, a history major with a Peace and Conflict Studies concentration from Shrewsbury, Mass. They have been organizing program details since September.

Kelly says the various immersion sites offer students an invaluable experience.

“I think what is most important and beneficial for students is that they encounter new communities and forge new relationships that inspire them and challenge their perspectives,” he says. “Of course, the service students provide during their week is of value, but it is the relationships that they form with those in the host communities and among their peers that is transformational.”

Kelly says that the Chaplains’ Office is grateful for the financial support received from the Student Government Association, the President’s Office, Holy Cross Alumni Association, Holy Cross’ Jesuit Community, and the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture. Related Information:

• Chaplains’ Office