Compassionate Hearts Mission Trips
New Jersey, Louisiana, Nicaragua, Jamaica
Over the past 14 years, more than 900 Elms undergraduates have participated in community service work locally, nationally and abroad. Through the Campus Ministry programs, we provide opportunities and experiences to garner an understanding of the vulnerability of people in our world. Your financial support helps offset the cost of a student’s participation.
Experience tells us that the mission trips not only create awareness of social justice issues, but they also encourage our students to make service a part of their lives long after graduation. Students connect with the people with whom they serve, listen to their stories, and live the charism of the Sisters of St. Joseph by making strangers our neighbors. It is through your spirit of generosity that students have these life-changing encounters.
During the March 2018 spring break, from March 2-10, students will volunteer in Trenton, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; Chinandega, Nicaragua; and Mandeville, Jamaica. Students will spend a week of service immersed in the local communities volunteering in a range of projects, from soup kitchens, shelters, and schools, to digging trenches to bring water to a community in Nicaragua, to volunteering in rural schools and health clinics in Jamaica. Please do what you can to help our students work with the under-served.
In reflecting on her experience in Nicaragua, a student recalls the village leader speaking to the entire group.
“The one thing that he said that has stuck with me to this day is: ‘I wish I could give you something in return for your help to save the people of our village, but all I have to give is my greatest thanks, and my daily prayer for your happiness.’ Having his thanks was worth more than anything I have ever received, and I won’t let a day go by where I don’t thank that man for giving me that.”