This coming October break, ten Houghton students will participate in a service trip in Buffalo. This is the first time in years there has been an opportunity for a type of alternative break.
Gillette Residence Director Laura Cunningham is organizing the trip as part of the changes in the student life program, as RDs are becoming more involved in campus wide programs. “It’s something I felt I could tangibly offer without compromising my work as an RD to Gillette,” Cunningham explained. She will be drawing from her three-year experience with Youth Works, an organization that sets up service opportunities, and is enthusiastic about participating in such work once more. “It’s fun to go back into that and engage with organizations in this way,” she said.
Cunningham additionally referenced Houghton’s connections in the West Side of Buffalo, including the rectory in which the students will be able to stay, and the Wesley Service Corps, which is comprised of recent college graduates devoting a few years to service. Marc Smithers, Assistant Dean of Students for Residence Life and Programs, also emphasized the Buffalo connection, noting the historic merge with the Buffalo Bible Institute and the many interactions Houghton students, graduates, and professors have with the city.
Once in Buffalo, students will likely engage with a few organizations dedicated to serving refugees as well as Habitat for Humanity or something similar. Cunningham emphasized pursuing “tangible opportunities” of service on this trip to foster “service learning” in students. She explained that service learning stresses learning about other people and cultures through “active service,” versus reading or talking. Such an approach brings about personal growth and an understanding of the humanity of the people you serve. “It’s easy to lump people in poverty together,” Cunningham said, but the service learning mindset “humanizes them.”
Both Smithers and Cunningham emphasized the service trip as both a growing experience and the groundwork for a pattern of active service in individual students and the college as a whole. Cunningham hopes the students participating will gain a “familiarity with service” that will enable them to serve effectively in the future. Smithers echoed this, seeing the trip as “a way to get students’ feet wet” and “give students a taste for what service looks like and make it part of their life.” Cunningham stressed the hope that students grow in their mindsets toward service, with “a willingness to serve however the organization needs” and “an openness to learn about people you’re interacting with and learn about yourself.”
Smithers noted “Houghton hasn’t necessarily had a strong history of alternative break trips,” but both he and Cunningham hope this trip will be the first step in bringing about a change. Although Houghton has had service days and athletic based missions, the open, alternative break option opens up service to the student body for a “focused time of service,” where students can get into the “mindset and rhythm” of it. Both Cunningham and Smithers are hopeful. “It’s a different type of offering to Houghton,” Cunningham said. “Something new and worth exploring.”