Dickinsonians Dive into Service Learning During Spring Break
Photos courtesy of service-trip participants.
Dickinson College students and staff bond through service
by Alexander Bossakov ’20
Spring break is a time for rest after midterms, a time to leave behind the back-to-back classes, exams and campus commitments, if only for a while. So on the afternoon of Friday, March 9, when classes came to a close marking the end of the first half of the spring semester, many students packed up and hit the road. But, given the value Dickinson places on civic engagement and a useful education for the common good, it’s no surprise that many students look at spring break as an opportunity to make an impact.
That is what 48 students and seven staff members did this spring break, not unlike their peers last year, the year before that or the one before that. Organized by the Center for Service, Spirituality & Social Justice, the trips ranged from Georgia to Detroit, West Virginia to South Carolina, where the participants committed to use their free time to make a difference. They spent the weeks before break fundraising to cover their expenses by selling organically made products around campus through the Equal Exchange program and meeting with student service leaders to discuss ethical and meaningful practices in relation to service in communities around the United States.
“We are very temporary in the lives of those people,” says Aleksandra Syniec ’18 (history, sociology), who stresses the importance of recognizing the meaning of one’s presence in a new community. “It’s important not to arrive as saviors.”
Acknowledging that service trips are a uniquely mutual exchange, trip leaders held nightly reflection sessions to discuss what service means to each participant and what people think they are contributing. Syniec was a student service trip leader in South Carolina this spring break, working with Habitat for Humanity. “By June, Habitat will have three houses built,” she explains. “It’s very humbling—I may only be doing one small piece of the house, but I’m doing my part so when the next group comes in, there’s more of a foundation.”
Participants typically drive as a group to the communities at the beginning of spring break. A week later, they have collectively experienced what Syniec calls “one of the things at Dickinson that you have to do before you graduate.” She describes being thrown into a new environment with an unexpected group of people, including Tara Vasold Fischer ’02, associate dean of academic advising, Katelin Moul, computing specialist with Library & Information Services, and students in majors ranging from international business & management to religion. “And we’re all just on a construction site trying to use tools and drills and hammers.”
“You bond really quickly when you’re driving down in a car somewhere, but even more when you’re like, ‘OK, I’m going to get on the roof, and you’re going to hold the ladder,’ ” adds Caroline Pappalardo ’18 (political science). “Really quickly, you have to trust people.”
Michelle Zhang ’18 (international studies), who led a service trip to Detroit focused on food and education justice from an interfaith perspective, notes how the trips help bridge cultural gaps while building community. Noting that Dickinson students come from a wide variety of backgrounds, she says she appreciates the way the college "uses service trips to bridge those groups on campus and build connections across differences.”
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Published March 30, 2018