So why the sudden boost? Dave Miller, pastor of Refuge Community Church in Forest Grove, Ore., thinks that a lot of it has to do with timing, “it’s a unique season in life, there’s more flexibility and freedom in college students’ schedules,” said Miller.

As the director of Pacific Christian Fellowship (PCF), Miller helped plan a trip to Los Angeles for college students during this past spring break. While on the trip students, got involved in a variety of community building tasks including working in soup kitchens and tutoring youth. “We call it an urban plunge. Usually we like to take students out of the ordinary and just help them see what’s going on in major metropolis areas,” said Miller.

Many students are tossing aside any plans of sitting on beach for spring break, in favor, of heading down to San Francisco to help the homeless. “It was an opportunity to do something positive with other people and get to know a cool city,” said Ashley Pinedo who joined the trip in 2005. Students who go on that trip volunteer at a food bank, soup kitchen and learn about advocacy for the homeless.

“I would like to think that we made an impact on the people there just by showing that we actually care,” said Ashley Jarrett, another member of the San Francisco group, “I worry that people who are in really tough situations like that, feel like no one really cares at all. Hopefully us being there showed that people are paying attention,” she added.

These kinds of trips have made themselves very well known on the Pacific campus. The Humanitarian Center’s service learning trip to Lukachukai, a Navajo reservation town in northeast Arizona, has had significant student participation. “It gets them out of their comfort zone in many ways,’ said Ellen Hastay, the service learning coordinator for the Humanitarian Center. “It's a tough trip, it really stretches you physically, emotionally and psychologically.” It also has a longstanding history with the campus as it was started in 1994.

The service learners spend their time on the reservation chopping wood for the elderly and assisting in a community school. Even though students expect to being giving their time and services they often leave with a few surprises of their own. “I was really surprised to see the amount of tradition that’s still alive. I was kind of expecting it to be down and out,” said Brandon Mazur, who went on the trip this past winter. One tradition that the students took part in was the religious ceremony of the sweat lodge.

The one thing these trips all have in common is the goal to provide a community bonding experience where both sides are satisfied. “It’s bridging that gap, it’s building community and it’s working alongside, not helping,” said Ali Moore, who participated in the Navajo trip.

As these trips gain popularity, Pacific joins the other colleges around the country who are playing an important role in seeing to there being five million college student volunteers by 2010. This is a goal that has been set by the Corporation for National and Community Service.  

 

 

By Christian Henry