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Students reflect on recent winter service trips

During her first year at Dickinson, environmental-science major Kelly McIntyre 鈥�14 took a service trip to Alabama, hoping that she鈥檇 return with a few new skills and new friends with common interests.  Today, she鈥檚 one of Dickinson鈥檚 many student-volunteers who lend a hand in communities in Carlisle and beyond.

McIntyre is one of the nearly 70 Dickinson students and administrators who spent their winter breaks across country or across the globe so they could help communities most in need.

The house that lacrosse built

Fifty-three members of the men鈥檚 lacrosse team helped build new homes for the needy at Habitat for Humanity鈥檚 Almost Heaven work camp. 鈥淚t was an incredibly positive learning experience and team-building opportunity,鈥� said Head Coach Dave Webster, who has led lacrosse service trips every other year since 2006.

Brian Gleason 鈥�14, a policy-management major, and Brian Cannon 鈥�14, an economics major, and political-science major Youssef Gorgi 鈥�14 were among the senior lacrosse players who have participated in Dickinson鈥檚 annual Vollehyball-a-thon throughout their time at Dickinson, and also helped build houses in Baltimore during the team鈥檚 2012 trip. Between the three teammates, they鈥檝e raised more than $40,000 for the National Cancer Society and the Red Cross thus far.

In West Virginia, Cannon鈥檚 team installed a railing and doors and built stairs, while Gleason鈥檚 and Gorgi鈥檚 group installed doors, hung kitchen cabinets, insulated an attic and painted. 鈥淭he project brought our group closer, and we had a lot of fun doing it,鈥� said Gorgi.

鈥淚t was very rewarding to put work into these homes, knowing that someone is going to have a warm place to live,鈥� Gleason added. 鈥淚 think most of the guys on our team would do it all over again.鈥�

Ecuadorian adventure

Sixteen students and two administrators spent two weeks of the winter break in Ecuador, where they worked side by side with Ecuadorian volunteers at two rural elementary school, laying tile for an outdoor cafeteria, building and painting rooms, planting a garden and building a security fence. They also had a chance to play with the children and venture to a cloud forest in a national park and to  Inagaprica, home to Incan ruins.

鈥淲e went there to serve, but we also learned much about Ecuador, the people of Cuenca and the ways we could begin to understand other cultures,鈥� said Frieda Adu-Brempong 鈥�16, a policy-management major.

鈥淭he hardest part was saying goodbye鈥擨 felt like I had made 50 new friends,鈥� said Madeline Chandler 鈥�16, who majors in Spanish and psychology. 鈥淚 have a newfound passion to make a difference in the world.鈥�

McIntryre can relate. 鈥淏efore my [first service] trip, I was not really pushing myself to make the most of this short period of time I have in college,鈥� she explained. 鈥淚t opened my eyes to the people I had been missing out on, and all that I could learn from them.鈥�