Last Saturday, August 29, 2009, marked the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
As our first-year students were preparing for the start of college, recent graduates were reflecting on memories of a frantic evacuation as Katrina swept toward New Orleans in 2005.
Four years later, you don’t have to travel too far to see the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina still plaguing the city.
This year the Loyola University Community Action Program’s orientation day of service, Into the Streets, fell appropriately on the anniversary of Katrina.
Nearly 100 first-year students gathered in the Peace Quad and disbursed throughout the city to spend their first weekend in college doing rebuilding and maintenance work with local nonprofits and schools. 
When the students gathered together at the end of the day to reflect on their day of service, there was a general consensus that not many students knew the extent of the damage that still remains in the city.
Even one student from New Orleans said he had no idea that such a large portion of the Lower 9th Ward was still unoccupied.
The state of recovery in New Orleans has slipped from public consciousness, but it is a grim reality to the people who are trying to rebuild their homes from the ground up.
As a student, it is really easy to become trapped in the Loyola bubble and never venture much farther than the boundaries of St. Charles Avenue and Freret Street.
Yet, students have an extraordinary opportunity to get involved in a city that has a completely unique place in history.
The recovery of New Orleans is unparalleled by any recovery effort that our country has ever seen.
Fortunately, various programs on campus are making it easier to bridge the gap between the classroom and the community.
The programs that provide service and justice-based educational opportunities at Loyola are flourishing.
Our Office of Service Learning is streamlining service into the classroom in order to give students a hands-on educational experience.
The Ignacio Volunteers program provides opportunities for students to engage in service in Jamaica and Belize, and it will be expanding its reach even more this year.
The Women’s Resource Center has ongoing events that focus on gender equality and women’s rights, and Bridging the Gap coordinates events that focus on diversity and peace. 
Students can also get involved with LUCAP’s fourteen volunteer and advocacy projects virtually every day of the week.
As the year progresses, new students will certainly be bombarded with the various Ignatian phrases that are so familiar to the Loyola community.
We see banners that declare us to be “men and women with and for others,” and with out a practical application, these words may seem lofty and beyond our reach.
Through a commitment to service, however, students can truly put the meaning of this phrase into action.
Suddenly the phrase becomes more than a collection of words engraved in stone that students may read on the way to the library.
Katrina did not end when the flood waters receded. Four years later, the storm is still not over, and it won’t be for years to come.
Now is the time for students to get their hands dirty, immerse themselves in the community and bring their education outside of the classroom.

Jamie Broussard is a sociology junior. She can be reached at [email protected]