2008 Woodie Awards
CareBreak trip offers insightful experience
By Christopher Schilling
Rocket Contributor
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Focus
For the past 13 years, the Institute for Community, Service Learning and Nonprofit Leadership at SRU has been sending students all over the country during spring break to do service work, such as tutoring children, building homes for the homeless and enhancing the lives of thousands.
Over spring break, I had the opportunity to travel with the students who went to San Francisco.
Throughout the week, we worked at the Presidio National Park, a former U.S. Army base that was turned into a national park in 1994.
Our weeklong mission was to improve the environment of the park by not only removing non-native plants, but also by planting trees and vegetation that are native to the northern California region.
The work was hard and at times, overwhelming, but at the end, all of us became close through our shared experiences and left with a new view of community service-how to be good stewards of our own land.
The trip was defined by many inspirational moments throughout the week, whether it was by working with the many locals impassioned to beautify their city or simply admiring the beauty of a city that is sometimes overlooked.
For me, the first inspirational moment I had was when I went with a group of SRU students to a beach that was located by the building in which we were staying to watch the sunset.
"One of my favorite parts of the trip was hanging out at the beach and taking in the view of San Francisco Bay, the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge," said Barbara Pfouts, a graduate student majoring in English. "It really helped me appreciate the natural beauty of San Francisco."
Our first day of service began at 9 a.m. on Saturday when one of the park supervisors greeted us and took us to our service location.
For the first part of the day, we planted a plant called mock heather, which was native to California, in an area that was a quail habitat site.
Our second day of work was probably the most beneficial day for a lot of us, because we had the opportunity to work with 25 fifth-graders from the Marin Waldorf School in Pacific Heights in the city of San Francisco.
Over spring break, I had the opportunity to travel with the students who went to San Francisco.
Throughout the week, we worked at the Presidio National Park, a former U.S. Army base that was turned into a national park in 1994.
Our weeklong mission was to improve the environment of the park by not only removing non-native plants, but also by planting trees and vegetation that are native to the northern California region.
The work was hard and at times, overwhelming, but at the end, all of us became close through our shared experiences and left with a new view of community service-how to be good stewards of our own land.
The trip was defined by many inspirational moments throughout the week, whether it was by working with the many locals impassioned to beautify their city or simply admiring the beauty of a city that is sometimes overlooked.
For me, the first inspirational moment I had was when I went with a group of SRU students to a beach that was located by the building in which we were staying to watch the sunset.
"One of my favorite parts of the trip was hanging out at the beach and taking in the view of San Francisco Bay, the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge," said Barbara Pfouts, a graduate student majoring in English. "It really helped me appreciate the natural beauty of San Francisco."
Our first day of service began at 9 a.m. on Saturday when one of the park supervisors greeted us and took us to our service location.
For the first part of the day, we planted a plant called mock heather, which was native to California, in an area that was a quail habitat site.
Our second day of work was probably the most beneficial day for a lot of us, because we had the opportunity to work with 25 fifth-graders from the Marin Waldorf School in Pacific Heights in the city of San Francisco.
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