Geraldine Stirtz
director of the Office of Service-Learning, 308.865.8957
Twenty-two students and two sponsors from the University of Nebraska at Kearney will travel to Texas for an alternative (drug/alcohol free) service trip over spring break.
The Nebraska Consortium for Service-Learning in Higher Education is sponsoring the trip which takes place from March 15 – 22. The Consortium is a coalition of approximately 20 colleges and universities established to foster service-learning efforts in institutions across Nebraska.
“Throughout the trip, students are involved with structured, reflective processing, about the activities in which they participate,” Geraldine Stirtz, UNK Office for Service Learning Director, said. “This processing helps to strengthen their learning and understanding about numerous community needs that exist in our multicultural society.”
The students participating in the experience will be working at four projected sites: Projecto Azteca, construction projects for homeless/low income individuals; Easter Seals Society, working with children with disabilities, ages 0-5; Casa del Consuelo, sharing compassion and care for terminally ill adults and; Women Together Foundation, working with individuals in a shelter for abused women and children.
“These students are given an opportunity to build new relationships and understandings as they work along side friends and strangers, many from other ethnic groups. They are given opportunities to develop leadership skills and better self-understanding,” Stirtz said. “Any growth and change to UNK students will mean change in UNK and the society in which these young people will seek future positions and occupations,” concluded Stirtz.
