Discovery: BEYOND OUR BORDERS
Ursuline's Beyond Our Borders Immersion Program challenges students to experience a world outside their own.
Eleven upperclassmen and three teachers from Ursuline Academy spent the first week of their summer vacation building a house in Belize City, Belize for a family in need. The group partnered with Hand in Hand Ministries Building for Change along with a local construction crew to construct a 16’ x 16’ wooden house. They also learned about social issues and the cultural richness of Belize. They worked incredibly hard, but still managed to squeeze in a few adventures, including visiting an ancient Mayan ruin site and an island off the coast of Belize City. Students have been challenged to take inspiration from their trip and relate it to comparable social issues in New Orleans. The students divided into four groups and are currently working to implement service projects that connect their experiences in Belize with the Ursuline community and with organizations throughout the city. The issues the groups have chosen to focus on include poverty and homelessness, violence against women, living simply and appreciating what one has, and the significant gap between wealthy and poor citizens.
Strengthened by the Word of God and by the communion with each other, let us have the courage to go beyond our borders and, with Angela, be signs of reconciliation and hope.� (2007 Ursuline General Chapter Message) 18
Inspired by their experiences in Belize, students focus on year-long projects in NOLA.
GROUP ONE:
Poverty and Homelessness
"Our group’s focus is on building for change. We have found astounding similarities between the poverty and homelessness in Belize and in New Orleans. While on the service trip, we witnessed dilapidated homes and unlivable spaces. We witnessed situations where many people were crammed in the smallest of living spaces. These people, however, were completely happy and welcomed us with open arms. To see such impoverished people living such faith-filled and joyous lives made us want to bring this type of service back to our community even more. Through the course of this year, we are planning to take multiple trips to different service sites geared toward building homes and bringing about awareness for poverty." - Students Kendall McGoey, Ingeborg Hyde, Katherine Meiklejohn GROUP TWO:
Violence Against Women
"Our topic deals with violence against women; some areas of our focus are domestic violence and/or sexual harassment. Our inspiration is Hilda Gonzales, the woman we built the house for in Belize. We were also inspired by Hand and Hand Ministries which advocates for women in poverty. We want to raise awareness for violence against women in hopes that one day, all woman can have the security of a safe environment the way Hilda has now." - Students Madeleine Walker, Madison Vise, Elizabeth Keller GROUP THREE:
Living Simply
"While in Belize, we were inspired by the people who grew in their faith and their love and appreciation for life and family despite lacking certain material amenities that many people in our community have been blessed with. The way that they embraced simplicity inspired us to strive to do the same and to encourage others to learn about the complex blessings that living simply has to offer. Therefore, our topic for the 2015-2016 school year will be living simply. We will encourage the Ursuline community to gradually make changes in their everyday lives that will eventually lead to them focusing less on material items and more on faith, family, and love. Some of these changes include monitoring personal water and electricity use, shortening unnecessary time spent on electronics, and spending more time on personal reflection, prayer and family." - Students Jeannie Nguyen, Emily Lonker, Kiersten Jeanne GROUP FOUR:
Gap Between Poor and Wealthy Citizens
When we embarked to Belize, Central America we saw that many injustices existed throughout the city we stayed in. All members of our group realized that there was a significant gap between the wealthy and poor citizens of Belize City. It also seemed that basic resources, like internet access and health care, were not equally attainable or distributed among the different classes. What motivated our group to act was meeting the Gonzales family, who we built [a house] for. Their younger son, Ishmael, had a speech impediment and could not attend school because their family did not have access to these types of accommodations, as they were not as wealthy as other members of the city. Our project’s goal is to help our school realize that this is a universal problem, and it is not just beyond our own borders that this gap exists; it is also a common issue here in New Orleans." - Students Meg MacLaren, Jordan Nicholson, Kalee Jo Banks 19