The CCESP team - comprised of Dartmouth undergraduates, Thayer School of Engineering and the Dartmouth Medical School graduate students, faculty and professionals travel to Siuna, Nicaragua to work in three areas: health, construction and agriculture. The team provides service in these areas by focusing resources on concerns determined by members in the host community. The trip is coordinated by students in partnership with Bridges to Community - a non-profit organization with a long history of service work in Nicaragua. Students benefit educationally from working with Dartmouth professionals and Nicaraguan community members toward a common goal.
The Belarus CCESP brings Jewish and non-Jewish students together to explore genocide through an in-depth education and service experience in Eastern Europe culminating in the renovation of a Jewish Cemetery. The trip itself leads students through Poland and Belarus, visiting historical Holocaust sites including Auschwitz, meeting with survivors and socializing with Belarusian college students.
Project Bangladesh offers a unique opportunity for Dartmouth Students to collaborate with students from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology on the design and construction of a new facility for the Charfassion Orphanage in southern Bangladesh. Students will be intertwined with every aspect of the project, from the ideas that go into its design to the hands-on construction of the facility itself.
ASB Service Trips are student-led and place teams of students in international and domestic U.S. communities to engage in community service for 10 days. Students perform short-term projects for community agencies and learn about issues such as literacy, poverty, racism, hunger, homelessness and the environment.
The wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita has been marked by continuous displacement of thousands of families, stagnant government efforts to re-establish communities, higher drop-out rates in schools, an epidemic of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide, and the disruption of a delicate environmental balance. To combat these issues through the engagement of the Dartmouth community, the Tucker Foundation and the Katrina Help student run initiative will be sending trips to the Gulf Coast this Winter Break. These efforts will foster reflective citizenship and compassion by serving and empowering their host communities through a sustainable and mutually beneficial collaborative effort.
Sort of the perception that we sometimes get from students, other students on campus when you ask, “Oh, you know, what are you gonna be doing for your spring break,” and we say, “Oh, we’re- well, we’re gonna be working with some women’s centers in Juarez, Mexico that has the highest homicide rate on the western hemisphere,” they’re like, “Oh, well, there you go trying to save the world again.” And I really think that this comment sort of takes away from what students are really trying to get at during these projects or community service trips. It’s in ten days, who can truly save the world? That’s impossible. Really what students are trying to do within this limited period of time that they have in between their academic studies is let people know that, you know, American citizens do care and that they are basically trying to learn from them what they do on a regular basis, how their lives, you know, compare to our lives, how does my life affect their life, how do my actions affect their daily lives or perceptions of the U.S., perceptions of American citizens? So basically, I think that’s what these trips are trying to get at more is to create and establish bonds between different types of human beings so that you can find not only- I wouldn’t say not necessarily a common ground, but to see how your actions affect their actions, how their actions affect you.
—Elizabeth Mendoza ’08
