Sharks and Service, SAS, is giving eight NSU students the opportunity to work with youth at a summer camp in Boulder Creek, Calif. in the summer of 2019.
This will be a week-long trip from May 3 to May 9. SAS will be working with the YMCA’s Camp Campbell to put on an environmental science camp for California youth. Students will take on the role of camp counselors. The youth camp is located between Santa Cruz and San Jose.
“We are going to be working on youth development, so we are working with the YMCA. It’s called Camp Campbell, and we are going to be working as camp counselors to fifth and sixth graders. It is like an environmental science camp,” said Trisha Kate Cesar, the SAS summer trip student site leader.
Students can now register for one of the eight spots on the trip. The trip costs $725. There will be fundraiser opportunities offered throughout the semester to help pay for the trip’s expenses like restaurant fundraisers and the annual Super Smash Bros. Tournament. Majaha wants students to realize there will be several fundraisers hosted by the organization to provide students with these opportunities.
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. A lot of students put it off like ‘I’ll do it my junior year. I’ll do it my senior year.’ When the time comes to graduate, they realize, ‘I’m graduating, and I never got the opportunity to go to Costa Rica. I had the opportunity, but I never grabbed ahold of it,’” said Moira Majaha, SAS student site leader.
SAS is founded on four core values: service, leadership, education and community. This summer trip places an emphasis on the value of service but will also incorporate the other three values. Students will take on leadership roles and will learn as they teach about environmental issues. Majaha said that these international and domestic trips give students a global and national perspective.
“When you put yourself out of an environment where you normally live and exist, you open up your eyes, so you get this huge scale to realize that hunger and homelessness is not just something that happens in South Florida. It affects almost every other person in the United States. That’s why it is very important to give people the opportunity to travel to another community, so that they, themselves, can actually learn that this is not just a local issue. It’s a global issue. It’s a nationwide issue. It gives them that opportunity to connect the dots,” said Majaha.
Having been a site leader for three years, Majaha has seen the growth of students that participate in the Sharks and Service trips. That is what inspired her to become a site leader. She has seen students expand their interests from the opportunities that they have been exposed to on the SAS trips.
“Some people go on a trip, and they are like ‘I never thought about doing public health, but this really opened up my eyes to public health.’ They are able to find out more about themselves through helping others,” said Majaha.
Students interested in the summer trip can register on the SAS OrgSync page at https://orgsync.com/139343/chapter. Updates will be posted on the site as well.
