The alternative spring break service program impacted communities closer to campus this year, when a group of eight students spent the week of February 27 volunteering between service projects in Norristown and Philadelphia.
At Mother of Mercy House in Kensington, students were directly engaged with the community there, serving food in the pantry and helping kids in the after-school program with homework, in addition to building vegetable gardens and other labor projects. Meanwhile, the group got their hands in the dirt with plenty of manual farm work during their time at Martha’s Marketplace and Community Farm in Montgomery County.
“These were very different programs at opposite ends of the spectrum,” said Guilherme “G” Lopes, Director, Campus Ministry, who designed and led the service trips. “It served for great reflection at the end of the day, because we were looking at both sides and saying, ‘In order for us to have food, this is what we need to do. But in order to serve food, we need this other kind of service.’”
Reflection and community living were major elements of the alternative spring break this year. Each night, the group came back to stay in Casey House on campus, where they took turns cooking for one another and discussing the day’s work.
“This mutual energy of seeing and appreciating everyone for who they are allowed everyone to comfortably open up and be themselves, which proved to make the week even more fun and strengthened the work we did,” said Sabrina Thompson (ʼ22), a Criminology student. “These reflections were simultaneously grounding and uplifting, focusing our attention on the importance of the service we were doing and opening our hearts for the Holy Spirit to work through us.”
Past alternative spring break trips have taken Cabrini students to New Orleans and rural Appalachia to help build homes and otherwise serve communities there. Lopes wanted the students’ service to have a greater impact on nearby Norristown and Philadelphia, while strengthening their ties to campus. The local nature of the work, as well as sponsorship from the Ambassador’s Fund, made the program very affordable for students.
“The whole model focuses on investing in our community,” he said. “And then at the end of the day, we come back to our community that is nurturing us and walking with us for four years (for some). We stay here and we reflect together as a community.”
Working in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, one of the nation’s most impoverished areas and the epicenter of the region’s opioid crisis, was a “culture shock” to some students.
“It’s easy to read about certain hardships and conditions people face, but to experience them first-hand allowed me to truly reflect,” said Finance student, James Dilks (ʼ25).
While the work in Kensington was eye-opening and interactive, the farm labor helped Dilks to “emotionally reflect on my life and who I was as a college student.”
This “indirect service,” as Lopes called it, makes just as much of an impact.
“The beauty of the farm…it’s like with faith: sometimes it’s a seed and you have to sow it,” Lopes said. “We love the corn but we don’t like cutting the corn stalk down. That’s hard work.”
These types of lessons began emerging during the group reflection sessions each night. After so much pandemic-era isolation, the students were eager to engage with each other in an intimate setting, Lopes added.
“I left this spring break trip with a better mindset and spirit, with great connections with my peers and mentors, and with a smile on my face,” said Patrick Heavey (ʼ23), a double-major in Secondary Education and History. “I would recommend this trip to anyone who is considering going on it next year.”
