The Spark themed living community hosts  40 freshmen who share not only a living space for a year, but also a passion for volunteering.

Starting in 2011, this program was designed for first-year students to participate in a week of service before the school year officially begins.

“Spark started as basically just an orientation service week. We took sign ups; first come first serve. There were 50 participants. It was huge,” Joseph B. Deegan, associate chaplain for service and justice programs and LUCAP advisor, said.

This year, Spark took place on Aug. 23 and 24, consisting of both a service day and a retreat. Spark alumni led the events, and Loyola students got the chance to partner with non-profit programs such as Hike for KaTREEna and KIPP New Orleans Schools for their service days.

“Loyola and other colleges often have the willing bodies, but they aren’t out in the community like nonprofits are. Together they can have the connections and partnership. We need volunteers and they need us for these projects,” Connie Uddo, director of Hike For KaTREEna and St. Paul’s Homecoming Center, said.

Each year, the program has worked with a different organization, doing service varying from putting in lightbulbs to painting an elementary school.

“Every university you go to will have a volunteer program, some opportunity for students. We’re fortunate in that New Orleans as a city has the capacity to provide a whole range of experiences in a number of different focus areas that can really be exciting for students, and Spark just really introduces students to that,” Deegan said.

Aside from the service component, Deegan said the program has evolved and improved in multiple ways over the last four years.

“It’s evolved to beyond service now. We want to try to educate them more about how the Jesuit conceptualization of service and justice maybe differs from other contexts,” Deegan said.

Changes in the program this year aimed to also help the new students prepare for the year.

“This year in particular, there was an added emphasis on personal development and personal goal setting for students so that they’d be aware of how to take responsibility for their own extracurricular and community engagement,” Deegan said.

Amanda Barry, political science freshman and Spark participant, said the work she does with Spark is rewarding in more ways than one.

“I think the work I did this weekend putting together the library will definitely put a smile on those kids faces, and I also think that community service helps students understand that not everyone has the opportunities we do. But we can help them to better their lives, like helping the students at the KIPP school,” Barry said.

Uddo said that the program is important because these kinds of missions helped to revitalize New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

“Service is very critical to New Orleans, and we’ve learned from Katrina the valuable roles volunteers play,” he said. “They keep the city functioning. New Orleans doesn’t have a lot of resources. We realize how much we can get done efficiently and effectively with a core of hardworking volunteers in a short amount of time.”

Those rewards, Uddo said, are worth the work.

“You’re not just touching one person or place,” he said. “It ripples to a whole community.”