TRANSFORMATIONAL TRIPS For AMU students, service, selfdiscovery happen at home and around the globe by Brigid O’Malley
IT’S THAT LITTLE BIT of confidence brought out in a young boy whose life is a daily struggle in Immokalee. Or it’s the touch of compassion shown that means so much to a dying man in Mexico. When students at Ave Maria University travel on their mission trips, there’s a special sense of purpose, a special sense of giving that surfaces. Whether that trip takes them less than a dozen miles away to neighboring Immokalee where they mentor kids, or halfway around the world to the streets of Calcutta where they minister to the poor, they are transforming lives – and transforming themselves. Nearly 250 students took part in the AMU Service Learning program during the fall 2013 semester. They logged 1,722 hours of service during that time. The spring 2014 semester has seen more of the same. Students built houses for Habitat for Humanity. They served at soup kitchens. They read with youngsters. But they also did more than volunteer. They learned. They discovered. Listen to their stories. Feel their emotion. Take away a les-
a v e m a r i a m a g a z i n e | s p r i n g 2014
son or two.
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IMMOKALEE, FLORIDA Mike Reilly is a freshman on the AMU soccer team. Working with the Immokalee Soccer School, Reilly and several other soccer players, give a group of boys, ages 6 to 13, a chance to use soccer to find something to focus on outside of their family problems and tough neighborhoods. “A lot of them don’t see themselves going anywhere,’’ Mike said. “I think just seeing college kids like us helps them see there is a future for them.” On Saturdays, more than 60 youngsters