Mother Teresa Project - Changing Lives

Students Changing Lives, Beginning With Their Own

A new Ave Maria outreach to the Immokalee Soccer School and Academy (ISSA), was formed within the Mother Teresa Project (MTP) in response to a need that three AMU students saw during their local service work. In late Spring 2018, the idea for Friends of ISSA was formed by a group of three AMU students; Resam Moghimi (2019, Biology), Mary-Kate Dowling (2020, Communications) and Jacinta Hogan (2021, Marketing).

ISSA is a non-profit organization located just a few miles from campus that is dedicated to helping low income children by providing structured after-school programs. The students saw the benefit ISSA was providing but realized that these same children were in need of a deeper level of support for long-term academic success. The primary focus of the Friends of ISSA is to offer ISSA children organized mentoring and esteem-building activities. Currently, the Friends club has grown to over 50 student volunteers.

AMU students travel to Immokalee each week to run a mentoring program, supporting over 30 children between the ages of 6 and 16. The program is structured so that each child is paired with an AMU student for the entire semester to ensure stability and build meaningful child-mentor relationships. AMU students that are not assigned as direct mentors provide supplemental support services to the child-mentor groups.

Friends of ISSA is already seeing positive results with the youth being served, including improved grades and more positive attitudes and social interactions with the AMU students. At the same time, Ave’s students are gaining valuable experience as leaders making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. As Jacinta Hogan explained, “Our group is making a mission trip to Immokalee every week. Immokalee is so close but it is an entirely different world than what we see in Ave each day.”

Dozens of Ave Maria students also seek to follow in Mother Teresa’s footprints abroad. During the winter and spring academic breaks, several student groups traveled to Mother Teresa’s missions in foreign lands. As student participation continues to grow, the MTP likewise continues to expand to meet the increasing demand of students for mission trip opportunities.

History was made during the winter break when the first group of AMU students ventured on a mission trip to South America - to the city of Salvador, Brazil. The Missionaries of Charity (MC’s) have a large presence in Brazil with 13 homes located throughout the country. The MC home in Salvador is their fourth largest. Students focused on care for the elderly and also worked at a day care center that supports local children. Salvador is one of the oldest colonial cities in the Americas and was founded by Portuguese explorers. Fortunately, AMU tennis coach Carlos Pinel, who is originally from Brazil, traveled with the students and helped bridge the language and cultural barriers.

The trip was so successful that another group of Ave students will travel to the MC’s in Salvador this May.

The MTP also achieved another “first” – Ave Maria male students traveled to the U.S. border town of Tijuana, Mexico during the winter break to serve with the MC priests at their worldwide headquarters. The timing of this trip also happened to coincide with activity related to the human caravan on its way from Honduras to the U.S. border. With careful pre-planning, the MTP group avoided any border problems. The student service work consisted of engaging with the youth ministry overseen by the MC Fathers and providing support for the MC Sisters in their nearby soup kitchen and children’s day care facility. In addition, the male student group also spent time visiting the elderly and helping distribute food, drink, and blankets to the homeless that congregate along a canal. Perhaps most memorable for the students was a moving Mass which an MC Father, Fr. Cyril, celebrated for the caravan group huddled near the border.

Over the winter and spring semester breaks, AMU students returned to Haiti, Washington, DC, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico City. Following the completion of the spring semester, student MTP trips are already planned for Calcutta, Uganda, Mexico City and, as mentioned, a follow-up mission trip to Salvador, Brazil. The MTP goal for next year is to send 100 students to the MC missions.

Images of AMU students involved in service project work in Immokalee, FL, Brazil and India