Spark, a community service organization for incoming freshmen, is going through changes designed to make the organization smaller and more communal.

In its first year, the group was open to all incoming freshmen and included a group of about fifty students, according to Joe Deegan, the LUCAP advisor to Spark. However, this year it was open only to freshmen living on campus. Commuter and Honors students could not apply to be participants but could still work as leaders for the group, said Deegan.

This year, Spark only accepted twenty applicants. Deegan says that this is due to Spark becoming a residential community with half of a floor in Buddig Hall.

Matteo O’Brien, a vocal performance freshman and Spark participant, says that he feels the sense of community on the floor.

“All of us are really, really good friends. It’s unlike any other floor that I’ve been to,” he said.

O’Brien says that he loved the service activities he did for Spark, including building a garden at a home and giving compact fluorescent light bulbs to homes in New Orleans East. This was in partnership with Green Light New Orleans, according to Deegan.

O’Brien says that he also enjoyed working with the Spark leaders, some of which were commuters.

“They didn’t feel like they were there to lead us. There were there to work with us,” he said.

As for the commuter students’ involvement, Deegan feels it was a matter of circumstance.

“We loved having commuter students. We couldn’t accommodate all the residential applicants either,” he said.

Deegan says that though commuting freshmen cannot be part of Spark, there are still many other opportunities for them to serve the community with Loyola.

“Spark is one of the many programs that we run. Anyone is welcome to attend LUCAP’s open meetings,” he said.

Karl Gommel can be reached at [email protected]