After finishing school this semester, students will travel to another country to help build a school for other students.
The Office of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement will host a student trip to Negril, Jamaica to help build an elementary school from May 1 to 7.
Volunteers will work with Delta Upsilon’s Project Jamaica, which has organized university volunteer trips to the school in Negril in the past, to build a pavilion for Jamaican students to eat lunch in. They will also get the opportunity to explore Jamaican landmarks and culture.
Elizabeth Mazorowicz, graduate assistant for SLCE, said that getting to know the Jamaican community is an important part of the trip.
“Domestic service opportunities are very different from international service opportunities,” she said. “You’ll always get a different perspective. It’s always a unique growing experience and a lot of fun.”
Each year, SLCE organizes an international service trip for the week after finals. The service trip to Jamaica is a Sharks and Service trip, which allows students to target specific social issues in an unfamiliar community.
“There’s an issue, and there’s a need, and that’s why service opportunities exist,” Mazorowicz said. “Personally, international service is always so unique because I don’t know what’s an issue in another country that I’m not a part of or another community I don’t understand.”
Alex Lopez, freshman marketing and management major, is a site leader for the trip to Jamaica. Site leaders help plan the trip and facilitate volunteer reflection.
“I hope I can help students realize how one week they took out of their schedule to do something selfless is going to impact a community for years,” he said.
Lopez said it’s hard to get people interested in service.
“Most people do community service because an organization requires them to, but there are very few individuals I’ve met who will do service because they want to,” Lopez said. “Because you haven’t needed to look beyond your own sphere, you don’t know what’s needed to help someone in a situation worse than yours.”
Mazorowicz said uncertainty can sometimes stop students from signing up for SAS trips.
“We’re asking you to get together with other people you’ve never met before, go to a place you might not have ever been before, and do something you might not have ever done before,” she said.
But while students may be nervous about the new experience, Mazorowicz said the experience is incredible and rewarding.
“Working with this school and meeting these students is a cool opportunity to be a part of an ongoing change,” she said.
Registration for the SAS trip to Jamaica is already closed, but for more information on future SAS trips, contact SLCE at slce@nova.edu or 954-262-7195.
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