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Notre Dame Vision “A week of fellowship and faith” June 28th-July 3rd, South Bend, IN
Franciscan Immersion Experience:
St. Francis Secondary School
Students traveled to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN and attended the ND VISION program which brings high school students from all over the country together in order to share a week of fun, spiritual activities and where they explore leadership and vocational opportunities. It was a week filled with interactive group sessions, liturgies, and musical gatherings. The program is led by members of the Notre Dame community – students, staff and alumni alike – showing their dedication to their school and faith lives. “It gave our students the time and place to focus on how they can use their gifts to serve others and develop a deeper, more personal relationship with God,” said Mrs. George Anne Kotowicz, Campus Minister for Liturgy & Worship and coordinator of this trip. This is the second year SFP participated in the program and it has become an important component to our vocation awareness efforts.
Students and chaperones traveled back to New Orleans for the fifth year to continue our volunteer efforts to help people rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
St. Francis Secondary School in Lare, Kenya was founded by the Franciscan Brothers of Galway, the same religious congregation that founded SFP. The school operates in the Catholic Diocese of Nakur and the students come from very poor families. Several of the children were orphaned by the 2008 election violence and the families are now hard hit by the on-going two year drought. Last year, donations from SFP community enabled the principal to pay school fees and food for some of the orphaned students. This year, St. Francis Prep students’ Lenten Collection was designated to buy bicycles for these Kenyan students. Many have to walk more than 5 miles (one way) to school each day. Often they arrive late, fatigued and unable to concentrate. The Prep community raised enough to purchase 60 bicycles.
New Orleans: June 29-July 5 Camden NJ: July 12-17
In Camden, students began the week learning about being poor in the State of New Jersey at the Romero Center social justice education program called Urban Challenge. Students were given $3.00 each, grouped in a family of 3 or 4, and had to shop and prepare three meals based on the daily allotment for a person living on government assistance. The group was pushed by the reality of this welfare exercise to better understand the realities of the residents of the second poorest city in the United States.
Lare, Kenya