A few groups of students will be going on service trips for their first two weeks of summer vacation, to places including Guatemala, Detroit, Tuba City, Taiwan and the Dominican Republic. According to Kelley Hardie, assistant dean of Student Services, all students have the opportunity to serve.
“Service trips are open to students in every department and every major,” said Hardie. “Some of the trips are tailored toward a certain department or major, but anyone can go on them.”
One of the most popular service trips Waynesburg offers is the Guatemala trip, as it is tailored towards nursing majors and revolves around a children’s nutrition center in Patzun, Guatemala. Even though the majority of students going on the trip are nursing majors, many of the students are from other majors, such as psychology, biblical ministry, marketing, education, english and biology pre-med. This particular trip has been happening every year for the past 15 years, and several of the students going have high hopes for the experience.
“I’ve been to Guatemala before, but this is my first time going through the school. I’m really looking forward to meeting all the kids,” said Hannah Pierce, a freshman nursing major. “I plan on going every year and it’s very likely we will see the same kids so we can actually build up a relationship with them.”
Nick Lies, a junior english major, weighed in on his expectations on the same trip.“I like making the world see a little bit smaller and getting to know other cultures,” said Lies. “I would rather be a ‘world citizen’ as opposed to being just a U.S. citizen.”
The Lamplighters Touring Choir will be spending a week in Detroit, Michigan to offer their musical talents and physical abilities as their services. They will be doing hands-on work for the Howell Ranch – a retreat center – which will be hosting children’s Christian camps starting in June. The trip to Taipei, Taiwan will be three weeks long and include mostly biblical ministry majors. The eight students attending, who will live and serve at Christ’s College, will spend time learning about their faith and serve food, while also spending time in the college with its current students.Nine students will be traveling to Tuba City, Arizona during the first week of summer break to serve at a Native American boarding school. The students service will include providing tutoring , completing maintenance work and event setup. Mary Hamilla, assistant director of the educational enrichment program, will be leading the trip for the first time and has high expectations on what students will experience.
“My biggest hope is that our Waynesburg students and the students from [Tuba City Boarding School] can share knowledge and be viewed as resources to one another,” said Hamilla.
The last service trip for the summer break will be going to the Dominican Republic. The students taking part in this service trip will be hosting sports camps for the children there to teach them about sports, safety and teamwork.Although the trips can be expensive, ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, Hardie said students also have plenty of opportunities to make that price go down. Each of the students participating in these trips takes on several fundraisers to raise money that decreases their trip price. There is also a service trip scholarship form that students can apply for. The application can be found in the service tab on the myConnect home page.