2010 Jamaica Service Trip

Touching Lives in Jamaica

Spring break is normally a time when college students go away to relax and leave the stress of homework and exams behind. Several Mount Aloysius College students and faculty went to Jamaica for their break to impact a community far away. The students worked at Alpha Boys School and St. John Bosco which are residential schools for boys. These young children are from poor families who feel their children are better off at these residential schools.

Five students spent their time at Alpha Boys Schools in Kingston, Jamaica. There MAC students helped the boys with their homework and played soccer with the younger kids. Senior Alpha boys have to complete School Based Assessment projects to be eligible to sit for exams that will enable them to apply to a university, so the service group helped these seniors with their projects on the computer. “Through my experience at Alpha I learned that service work isn’t just about giving yourself to help others because after it’s over you end up coming home with more knowledge and experience than what you left with. You actually feel like you were served,” commented Elizabeth Hogue, ’12. ”The experience changed my life and I will never forget the relationships I built. I am so thankful to have been a part of that trip.”

In Mandeville, Jamaica, seven students spent time tutoring boys in small groups at St. John Bosco. To help cover the cost of food, Bosco grows many plants and several students worked in their greenhouse to properly care for the tomatoes. “Jamaica was one of the best experiences of my life. It made me realize that service does not have to be in the form of money or anything measured, but instead in sincerity and virtue,” said Chelsee Warner, ’12.

Sr. Nancy Donovan, Director of Campus Ministry summed up the experience by adding, “The most important aspect of a service trip, and in particular an international one, is to experience another culture and be able to name and know a person. While our time there was short and the boys carry on with their lives, we come back changed, our hearts expanded. All of the MAC students want to go back to Jamaica because their lives were touched by the boys at Alpha and Bosco. That is what makes a service trip so meaningful.”

View Photos from Jamaica

Watch Video from Jamaica