Service Learning Coordinator Alex Hall sponsored a trip over Spring Break where 17 students immersed themselves in the culture of New Orleans, LA. The group spent a week doing everything from service work to shopping and seeing the sites.

According to sophomore Haley Ulowetz, Hall created the excursion as an alternative to the Guatemala service trip. Hall knows the city well since his alma mater is Loyola University in New Orleans, and he took the girls to visit it. He felt New Orleans was a place in need of help and a chance for the girls to experience another type of culture.

“I liked bonding with the girls while accomplishing something great for others,” sophomore Meghan Frerking said.

The group was busy all week with a variety of outings and volunteer opportunities. They helped clean up a historic theater in the Tremé district, as well as going to a Saint Patrick’s Day parade. Another day, they attended a youth festival in Louis Armstrong Park where they assisted with cleaning and got to take part in a healing ceremony for families of the community who lost children due to violence in the city.

On Monday, the group served at a Knowledge Is Power Program charter school. After Hurricane Katrina hit, public schools were failing kids left and right, and charter schools emerged as a result. KIPP schools focus on education, and the girls got to experience it first hand helping in the classrooms, working on projects for the teachers and playing with the students at recess.

“The KIPP school was my personal favorite part of the trip. The children were amazing. In three minutes, they could be your best friend and want you to play with them and spend time with them,” sophomore Carolyn Dickey said. “Even though we were only with the kids for a short period of time, it was sad to leave them.”

The group spent a day cleaning stables and grooming horses at a rescue ranch where they provide therapeutic riding programs and take care of rescue horses. They also attended Mass at the Saint Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square, visited the French Quarter and walked the streets filled with shopping, beignets and Cajun food.

“They saw more in five days than someone who goes to college there would see in two years,” Hall said. “It was a remarkable success.”