Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
In just two months, up to 12 students will be doing exactly that, as they find themselves in New Orleans volunteering with the United Saints Recovery Project. These students will be the first participants in Bradley’s new Alternative Winter Break (AWB) program.
“Everyday, they will have different projects,” Jessica Chandler, director of the Lewis J. Burger Center for Student Leadership and Public Service, said, adding that volunteers can work in large or small groups. “It’s anything from landscaping and gardening to gutting houses and helping rebuild houses.”
As director, Chandler is responsible for introducing this opportunity to campus and working with the United Saints Recovery Project, a non-profit organization that helps communities affected by natural disasters.
“I have been doing these trips at different universities that I’ve been at, and we know that we have students who love to volunteer,” Chandler said. “They obviously do it over spring break with STLF [Students Today, Leaders Forever], which fills up rather quickly. I thought, ‘Why not do it over winter break, too, when we have an extended period of time?’”
STLF, which is entering its fourth year at Bradley, is a student-run trip that travels to multiple locations across the country for service projects. AWB is different in the sense that it is planned by the LJB Center and will focus on one location and one community, according to Chandler.
Freshman finance major Kyle Job said he has taken interest in the AWB program.
“I have gone on mission trips in the past and always found them to be rewarding experiences,” Kyle Job, a freshman finance major, said. “Also, I have found myself volunteering a lot less [in college] than I have in the past.”
Chandler said she hopes to see the AWB program evolve over time.
“In the first year, [my goal] is just to provide a new opportunity for students to get involved in a different community, see a different part of the country and realize that the need in New Orleans from the hurricanes is still great even 10 years later,” she said. “My long-term goal is that the program grows, so we can eventually send more than one trip over winter break or maybe even branch out to something over fall break.”
Currently, Chandler is taking the lead in the program’s development, but that may not always be the case.
“I would love to see students someday take it over and join the planning process with me, or I could turn it entirely over to them,” she said. “I think whenever you can empower students to take over a program like this, it is much better than just me doing it.”
The AWB trip is one of the ways Chandler and the LJB Center are working to foster leadership and service on campus. Other new efforts within the center this year include Leadership Luncheons and a revamp of Through the Lens of Leaders, which will be hosted by Bradley Fellows next week.
“I think we have a good niche with the service aspect; we try to send out service opportunities as much as we can,” Chandler said. “We’re starting to focus more on the leadership aspect of how we can grow our leaders and campus and how we can get them ready to be leaders in the community once they leave Bradley.”
For more information on January’s AWB trip, see the accompanying box or email Chandler at jchandler@fsmail.bradley.edu.
Alternative Winter Break Details
Destination: New Orleans, Louisiana
Dates: Jan. 10-16, 2016
Number of Participants: 10-12 students
Cost: $300
Includes housing, transportation, meals and a T-shirt
Application deadline: Friday, Nov. 13 by 5 p.m.
Applications available at bradley.edu/studentleadership or by emailing jchandler@fsmail.bradley.edu.
Project Description: Working with the United Saints Recovery Project to help restore the homes and hearts of communities affected by natural disasters
