"We tutored the middle schoolers, taught classes, cheered them on in basketball games, ate lunch with them, helped them with homework—we were really involved," said Winooski resident George Ashline, professor of mathematics at Saint Michael's College, who accompanied nine Saint Michael's students to Buffalo, N.Y., to work in middle schools over winter break, January 3 to 10.
"We know that we made some lasting impact on the girls and the school," said Brigette Comeau, senior education and religious studies major from Bedford, N.H., and co-leader of the trip. "They even asked us to come back this summer to help with a summer camp," she said.
The trip was part of the Saint Michael's College MOVE (Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts) Edmundite Campus Ministry extended service program, which sent groups of students over winter break to five sites, Best Friends Animal Society in Utah, Immokalee Friendship House in Florida, Big Thicket Preserve in Texas, and Habitat for Humanity in
Louisiana, as well as to Buffalo.
The work in Buffalo was at the middle schools, Saint Monica Scholars Program for Young Women and Saint Augustine Scholars Program for Young Men, focused on youngsters in grades five through eight.
"The trip was an amazing experience," Ms. Comeau said. "We made great personal connections with girls at the school. We helped build a library, organize kitchens and closets in the school, and taught in some of the classrooms. The most memorable activity was a project helping the students write poems about violence in their lives and how to make the world they live in more peaceful," she said.
Other Saint Michael's students participating were Molly Roy of Bath, N.H., Eliza Young of West Newbury, Mass., Hilary Richard of South Burlington, Vt., Claire McQuillen of Needham, Mass., Dustin Hunter of Lyndonville, Vt., Evan Dewey of Lebanon, N.J., Sarah Cino of Windham, N.H., and Anna Vanyush of Milton, Vt.
These schools are modeled after the Jesuit-based Nativity Network and offer students who cannot afford a private education an extended school day, week, and year to keep them focused on education and off the streets. The Saint Michael's group worked with 23 Saint Monica Scholars and 56 Saint Augustine Scholars who were African-American and African refugees, immigrants, and new Americans.
During the week, the Saint Michael's group resided at the Franciscan House at St. Lawrence, a former convent in a parish on the eastern side of Buffalo. They served the parish by painting the dining room and kitchen during their stay.
Saint Michael's College, founded in 1904 by the Society of St. Edmund and headed by President John J. Neuhauser, is identified by the Princeton Review as one of the nation's Best 368 Colleges. A liberal arts, residential, Catholic college, Saint Michael's is located just outside of Burlington, Vermont, one of America's top college towns and less than two hours from Montreal. As one of only 270 institutions nationwide with a prestigious Phi Beta Kappa chapter on campus, Saint Michael's has 2,000 full-time undergraduate students, some 500 graduate students and 200 international students. In recent years Saint Michael's students and professors have received Rhodes, Woodrow Wilson, Guggenheim, Fulbright, National Science Foundation and other grants, and Saint Michael's professors have been named Vermont Professor of the Year in four of the last eight years. The college is currently listed as one of the nation's Best Liberal Arts Colleges in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Photo Caption:
Saint Michael's participants on the service trip to Buffalo middle schools, left to right, Molly Roy , Eliza Young, Hilary Richard, Claire McQuillen, and Brigette Comeau; back row, Dustin Hunter, Evan Dewey, Professor George Ashline, Sarah Cino, and Anna Vanyush.