In this section
Overview
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.
Belarus CCESP
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
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