Last fall, I made a decision that proved to be the best decision of my life. I applied to go to Kingston, Jamaica with the Ignacio Volunteers, a Loyola University mission and ministry immersion group. I, along with 13 other Loyola students and faculty, embarked on a journey that will stick with me for a long time.
The trip was a challenge. There was no air conditioning, and even December in Jamaica is hot — really hot. The food was different, I was scared to drink the water (it was fine, for future reference) and I couldn’t understand the accents at first.
We worked at sites that forced us to look poverty and destitution straight in the face. I sang the same hymn with a 90-year-old blind woman for hours and helped a nine year-old boy, whose body was mostly burn scars, how to read the letters of the alphabet. It was not easy. But it was important.
I preface my argument with this anecdote so that the reader can understand something: I loved my time there and it was an experience that will undoubtedly stay with me for the rest of my life. In the end, though, I didn’t outshine anyone. I wasn’t the service trip-er of all service trips. There were, however, people on my trip who did outshine all of us and they were all freshmen.
A few days ago, the Rev. Ted Dziak, S.J., the vice president for Mission and Ministry, sent out an e-mail to previous Ignacio Volunteers informing them that recruitment for next Christmas’ programs will begin this semester.
This new policy means that incoming freshman won’t be able to attend. After I e-mailed him back, he confirmed that, no, freshman will no longer be able to attend Christmas programs in Jamaica and Belize.
He cited two reasons: freshman need to spend their time adjusting to college life and, “after three/four months they will better be able to decide what they would want to participate in, including international immersion programs.”
More importantly, though, he said the decision was made to allow groups more time to fundraise — the cost may differ with each trip, but we each had to raise $1,200 individually to cover trip expenses.
Let’s talk first about freshman adjustment. Even as a junior, set in my circle of friends and comfortable in my collegiate situation, I am closer to my Jamaica family than some of my “best friends” from beforehand. Want to find a place where you fit in and meet lifelong friends? Go on an immersion trip.
Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to adjust than to be thrust into a group of loving, open and compassionate people — the same type of people who make the commitment to spend their vacations abroad helping the less fortunate.
As for fundraising, I can’t say it was easy. Especially in a recession, $1,200 is a lot to ask from people. But you get creative. You write letters to senators, as one of our group members did, hold a rap show at Café Prytania, hold a date auction, as the current Belize trip recently did or work for Centerplate, an agency that sets groups up at concession stands during Saints and Hornets games for a profit. It’s possible, and I know it is because I‘ve seen it done.
I understand that Fr. Ted is a veteran of immersion trips. But at Mother Theresa’s Home for the Destitute and Dying in Jamaica, it was a freshman who dug a splinter out of a mentally handicapped patient’s thumbnail, not an upperclassman.
It was a freshman at the Mona Kommons School who bonded the most with the kids, impacting them more than anyone else. It was a freshman in the house who did our dishes after every meal. It was freshmen who are still some of my closest companions, months after our trip.
Please give the freshmen the chance to do something amazing, Fr. Ted. They’re quite capable.
Melanie Ziems is a mass communication senior and The Maroon’s sports
editor. She can be reached at
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