Jan. 30, 2014 issue 15 Loquitur

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Students go to Swaziland, form bonds with Swazi youth

Thursday Jan. 30, 2014 VOL. LV, ISSUE 15

Inside SUBMITTED BY EMILY PARADISE

Dr. Susan Pierson, Emily Paradise, Leann Scherer, Alexis Setley, Colleen Poole, Alexis Christiano, and Caitlyn Poole with students from Swaziland BY LAUREN HIGHT Asst. Lifestyles Editor IS EXTRA CREDIT REWARDING STUDENTS? PAGE 8

FLYERS INCONSISTENT SEASON CONTINUES PAGE 13

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Five Cabrini students and two staff members learned that four days is all it takes to build a lasting bond 8000 miles away. From Jan.1 to Jan.12 Alexis Christiano, Alexis Setley, Caitlyn Poole, Leann Scherer and Emily Paradise joined Dr. Susan Pierson and Colleen Poole as they traveled to Swaziland to provide educational resources and life skills to the Cabrini Mission Teen Camp, sponsored by the Cabrini Ministry. Swaziland is a land-locked country located in southern Africa. It is a monarchy, which makes it one of the continent’s few kingdoms. The Cabrini Mission Teen Camp is a hostel that offers summer camps four times a year to local Swaziland society members aged 14 to 23 years old. Because of Swaziland’s location in the southern hemisphere, their seasons are opposite to those in the United States. This camp provides a safe place for the

severely underprivileged because their home-life can also be the residence of diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis. This camp is not an orphanage, however, because when the camps come to a close, the young adults return to their homestead. “Community members are invited [to the hostel] by the missionary sisters to restore hope in families,” Dr. Susan Pierson, assistant professor of education, said regarding the camp. All five students are studying education at Cabrini and were invited to apply for this opportunity during the fall semester. A total of 10 students were encouraged to apply for the trip based on their interest in the topic of Swaziland and their year of studies, but only five decided to go through with it. Emily Paradise, junior elementary and special education major, was one of the students who embarked on the journey to Africa. “The opportunity just fell into my lap and before I knew it I was off to Africa! I was nervous at first but the people there were so welcoming and the kids were so willing to learn,” Paradise said. After a two hour drive to New York, 14-hour plane ride to Africa, another half hour domestic flight and a half hour drive to the mission, where the camp was located, the stu-

dents and staff were ready to get to work. The mission’s goal is to inspire their attendees that there is more to life than the sickness and oppression that has become a way of life. Paradise and her fellow travelers were there to help enhance that objective. The Cabrini College visitors used their time at the camp to teach the poverty-stricken children business and financial basics to help them acquire valuable skills to benefit their future. The teenage participants at the Cabrini Mission Teen Camp were enrolled in either primary or secondary school under the Swaziland education system. In their classes, is it mandatory to learn the English language. Their broken English along with a SiSwati translator (SiSwati is the official language of Swaziland) helped overcome the language barrier. Even though 93 percent of students complete the primary education, only about 20 percent continue onto secondary school. Caitlyn Poole, sophomore elementary and special education major, explained that they developed lesson plans that would enhance the importance of the subject matter but would also be engaging. “We taught them business skills that can help prepare them for a job when they finish school but we’ve made it interactive as well. They made up their own company and their products were bracelets. Part of it was that we got to make the bracelets with them and that was a time where we really got to bond with them,” Poole said. SEE SWAZILAND ON PAGE 3

SUBMITTED BY EMILY PARADISE

Picture above: Alexis Christiano, Leann Schrerer, Caitlyn Poole, Alexix Setley, and Emily Paradise in Swaziland

INTERNET ADDICTION: ARE WE SHARING TOO MUCH?

Picture at right: Emily Paradise, Alexis Setley, Alexis Christiano, Leann Schrerer and Caitlyn Poole in the home of Cabrini missioners

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SUBMITTED BY EMILY PARADISE


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