Orientation for the 2012 centennial class ended Saturday with the opportunity to help rebuild New Orleans.
Mission and Ministry – a new joint organization between Loyola University Community Action Program and University Ministry – collaborated with new student orientation to coordinate “Into the Streets,” three community service tours addressing post-Katrina issues: “Rebuilding New Orleans,” “New Orleans Social Justice” and an “overflow” tour to areas hardest hit by Katrina.
The “Rebuilding New Orleans” tour first visited the Habitat for Humanity Musician’s Village in the Ninth Ward.
Later the New Orleans Survivor Council, a grassroots coalition of Ninth Ward residents committed to rebuilding their neighborhood, provided the students with the opportunity to clear overgrown lots. Homeowners in the area may be charged up to $500 per day if grass on their lots exceeds 18 inches in height, according to NOSC member Drew Mosby.
Hannah Andrews, mass communication freshman, helped clear a property of overgrowth on the tour. “I don’t think this was what anybody had in mind,” she said. “But you can’t underestimate the importance of (this work).”
The tour also spoke with members of NY2NO, a group of New York City high school students who have made multiple trips to New Orleans since Katrina to work with NOSC.
Loyola has worked with NOSC in the past. Besides being the only university in New Orleans to open its shower and gym facilities to recovery volunteers (some of whom were involved with NOSC), in the summer of 2006 many of Loyola’s students attended an alternative spring break called “Katrina On the Ground”, in which NOSC participated.
Another tour, “New Orleans Social Justice”, focused on raising awareness of social and environmental responsibility.
At John Dibert Elementary School in Mid-City, Wilhelmina Peragine, A’07, spoke about New Orleans’ Recovery School District and its involvement with Teach for America, a nationwide program that hires recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools.
Peragine, an art teacher at Dibert, sees potential in this year’s freshman class to promote social justice. “The (students’) questions about school funding astounded me,” she said. “I’m not used to people, much less freshmen, being so thoughtful.”
The tour also visited local coffee shop Fair Grinds Coffee House, which uses fair trade and environmentally friendly products. Later the group worked with Green Light New Orleans, a non-profit group devoted to environmental sustainability.
“Into the Streets” attracted much more attention than expected, based on numbers from previous years. “We’ve had between 60 and 70 (participants) each time in past years,” LUCAP associate chair Jennifer Rudolph said. But numbers this year exceeded one hundred, and a third tour was even added to accommodate for the overflow of volunteers. Although no volunteer work was done on the tour, it offered a glimpse of devastated areas of the city, including Lakeview, the Lower Ninth Ward, St. Bernard Parish and the interior of a gutted house.
At the end of the day the three tour groups met at the Fly in Audubon Park for a picnic and reflection on the day. LUCAP advisor and University Ministry associate pastor Josh Daly believes that the day’s experiences were important to freshmen, especially for those not from New Orleans.
“This (project) gives students a chance to see a bit of New Orleans that they might not otherwise see,” Daly said. “You could miss it if you stayed in the ‘Loyola bubble.'”Rudolph agrees that the experience was beneficial to the students as well as the city.
“We’re privileged to serve,” she said. “Things like this are part of what Jesuit universities strive for with social justice.”
Kevin Zansler can be reached at [email protected].
