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COVER STORY: THE STRATEGIC PLAN
Educating the Whole Student Shore to assist with rebuilding efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
“The amount of progress we achieved in that one week was inspiring. It was absolutely the best Spring Break I ever had.” Ashley Manion ’14
Since Sandy affected many Centenarians personally, Tiffany Kushner, Director of Co-Curricular Transitions, spearheaded an effort to combine the two projects. “At first, students had the option to work at the Boys & Girls Club or participate in the rebuilding process,” she explained. “They ended up being able to do both instead of having to choose. We had some Education majors who really wanted to work with the kids, but also wanted to participate in the rebuild. It was nice that they were able to do both.”
Alternate Spring Break: Local Edition Over the past decade, Centenarians have trekked thousands of miles to rebuild lives and communities devastated by hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. They have spent many a Friday night distributing essentials to the homeless in New York City, and worked closely with entrepreneurs to get businesses off the ground in such far-flung locations as Alaska, Guatemala and Colombia. Centenary students want to make a difference.
Alternate Spring Break provided opportunities for greater hands-on experiences related to students’ area of study, as outlined in Celebrating Our History: Forging Our Future, the strategic plan for Centenary College. Last March, Centenary volunteers served on two projects where the needs were still great, the work still immensely rewarding, but the destinations far closer to home. Alternate Spring Break brought Centenary students to the Boys & Girls Club in Newark to work with underprivileged youth and revitalize a facility, and to the Jersey
From City to Surfside Over the course of the first half of the Spring Break week, the students completed the total cleanup of a space at the Boys & Girls Club. Improvements included setting up new bulletin boards and reinvigorating the space with an exhibit. “We had sounds, pictures and images taken by some of the students that were worked into a gallery throughout the halls,” said Kushner. Alternate Spring Break at the Boys & Girls Club also provided opportunities for hands-on experience related to students’ area of study, as outlined in Celebrating Our History: Forging Our Future, the strategic plan for Centenary College. Kushner recalled one Social Work student who broke up an argument between two children. “She had to learn to have those conversations, so this was a great real-world experience for her,” Kushner said. Mid-week, the students headed south to Union Beach and Lavallette to help restore homes damaged by Hurricane Sandy. With their range of experience levels, the students made a huge difference over a small period of time while also
Service: Through the Years
6 The Centenarian
1942 At the start of World War II, Centenary students received Army training on how to care for and feed civilian evacuees.
1999 Centenary became the first college in New Jersey to introduce a community service requirement. Celebrating Our History: Forging Our Future calls for greater engagement in character building and career development through experiences in and out of the classroom.