By Lauren Zazzara
Features Assignment Editor
Summer is usually time for serving ice cream, but some Bonaventure students are going to use the time to serve others.
Several students have plans to go abroad this summer on service missions in the hopes of making a difference in the communities they will visit.
Amanda Saeli, a sophomore marketing major, is going to Uganda as part of Embrace It Africa, a 501(c)(3) charity (a nonprofit) that began on campus.
“I’ll be helping with their sponsorship program, so I’m getting the kids to write letters and taking pictures of them,” she said. “Then I’ll also be doing a bunch of market research down there for my honors project to see how successful their programs are and to understand how the community views education and the education system, so that eventually we can make an advertisement for the school.”
Sophomore journalism and mass communication and English major David Bryant also has plans to go to Africa this summer, he said. He is going to South Africa. He said he learned about the trip through Sr. Suzanne Kush, C.S.S.F. and Br. Paul O’Keefe from Washington D.C., who he met from another service mission.
“Basically we’re going to go and offer our services at orphanages or interact with the poor in certain, really impoverished villages,” Bryant said. “We will be present at an orphanage interacting with the children and letting them know that there are people that care about them, especially at this one specific orphanage we will be going to. All the orphans there are orphans because their parents died from HIV.”
Christina D’Onofrio, a senior childhood studies major, is embarking on a year-long internship abroad, beginning this summer, in the Netherlands.
“I’ll be facilitating what are called Bridge Builders clubs, which are youth groups that focus on cross denominational and cross cultural dialogue with teenagers,” D’Onofrio said. “I’d really like to have some strong youth programs going because that’s really important in faith formation. I’d like to have those youth groups be an open place where everyone is welcome to because that’s what I found here, and that’s what I’ve had a privilege to be a part of my whole life.”
All three students said that preparation is essential when embarking on service trips. The preparation varies depending on where the student is going.
“I had to get a typhoid and yellow fever shot and then I’ll have to take malaria pills every day,” Saeli said.
She also mentioned that packing for a different climate is difficult.
Bryant also has to prepare for a different climate, as it will be winter in South Africa. He said he also researched the politics and culture of the country.
Culturally there are a lot of things different from in the United States, like men don’t wear shorts in South Africa,” Bryant said. “Everyone wears pants. To avoid sticking out, I have to wear pants and cargos and things for hiking.”
D’Onofrio said the most difficult challenge for her has been fundraising. She said she has to raise $12,000 in order to go, and so far she has $5,250.
“I’m going to be going to different churches in my area once I go home after graduation asking support from those different churches. I’ll likely be doing some events. I’m thinking of doing a fundraising dinner once I get home,” D’Onofrio said. “I’m sending out personal letters to people who have known me and seen me grow in my faith and as a woman.”
Anyone can help fund D’Onofrio’s trip at gofund.me/atlanticbridge.com.
The students said they are excited for the impact they will be able to make in the communities they are visiting.
“Last summer when I went, I was absolutely attached to the people there; I’m so in love with them,” Saeli said. “I really wanted to go this summer and show them that I continue to care and that I want to help their community more. I think it’s a good thing when you can contribute a skill and resource they might not have.”
Bryant said he hopes volunteering at the orphanage will make a difference to the children.
“If we can make some sort of impact on at least one life while we are there, it would make the whole trip worthwhile.”
zazzarlm13@bonaventure.edu
