28 students help
instead of party
■ Spring break gives a group
of students the chance
to volunteer in the poor
communities of Mexico
By Beata Mostafavi
Oregon Daily Emerald
Sophomore Stacie Long
watched some of her friends chat
excitedly about their expensive
spring break ventures and newly
purchased clothes, and it hurt her
to listen to some of their vacation
story-swapping.
Long spent her own break in
Mexico, but not to find cheap bar
gains or sip margaritas on the
beach. Instead, she and other stu
dents volunteered their time to
help one of the country’s poor
communities.
After spending time with or
phans who did not have shoes or
hot meals, who went to school
where they sat on tarps instead of
desks, and who had deformities in
their backs from pesticides in the
country’s crops, Long’s “broke”
college life suddenly seemed lux
urious and her consumer habits
appeared excessive, she said.
Seven students from the Inter
varsity Christian Fellowship, and
21 from the St. Thomas More
Newman Center, shared Long’s ex
perience when they traveled to the
city of Vicente Guerrero over break
for separate mission services to the
poverty-stricken community.
Some students took care of
young, sick children and distrib
uted food. Others dug ditches to
bring electricity to an orphanage’s
surgery room and helped build
part of the city’s multi-purpose
community center.
Members from both campus or
ganizations said they couldn’t
think of a better way to spend
their vacation time.
An education major who went to
Mexico with ICF, Long came back
from her trip with a new way to see
her surroundings. In the football
team’s equipment room where she
works, Long opened boxes of new
shoes shipped to the players. She
instantly thought back to the Mexi
can children who had to dig
through garbage cans to find food
scraps.
After seeing how content the
children were with how little they
had, she said it was difficult to
come back to a world where many
people are driven by money and
take their fortunes for granted.
She added that people need to
travel to other places to put their
lives into perspective.
“I don’t blame anyone because
they aren’t aware,” she said. “But
everyone should go to a Third
World country and see how other
people live.”
Shelley Ryan-Kelzenberg, coor
dinator of ICF’s Mexico mission,
said that like Long, most students
come back from the trip with a
new view of their own life.
“Students are prone to com
plain about things like how bad
the food is in Carson [Hall],” she
said. “They gain a new perception
on what is an acceptable standard
of living.”
Amy Merriman, a sophomore
history major who also traveled
with the ICF group, said the trip
brought more meaning to her reli
gious faith.
It was as she held a baby girl
who had been found in a trash bin,
Merriman said, that she truly un
derstood the Bible passage that
says people can comfort them
selves by comforting the poor.
“You think you’re going there to
serve people, but instead you’re
served,” she said.
Justin Zuiker, a sophomore busi
ness major who went on the New
man Center mission, said his trip’s
purpose was to teach him more
about himself — and how he can.
help resolve some of the extreme
disparities in the world by living a
more simple lifestyle.
“I went there because I was
missing something in my life,” he
said. “The trip helped me realize
that I take everything for granted
... I learned how little some peo
ple have and how much I have,
and it made me want to solve
some of the problem. I figure I
should start with myself in the
way I live and the things I do.”
Calendar
Monday, April 9
• Exhibition: Visual design by Nancy Fields, painting and drawing by Nicky Kriara
and a silk-screen exhibition organized by Tallmadge Doyle. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. LaV
erne Krause Gallery, Lawrence Hall. Free. Through Friday. For information, call
346-2057. Reception from 7-9 p.m.
• Environmental Studies Lecture: George Roderick, a researcher from the Univer
sity of California at Berkeley, will discuss spider populations and species invasion
in Hawaii in his speech, “Insect Invasions of the Pacific Rim: Host Plants, Genet
icsand Origins,” from4-5 p.m. in Room 110, Willamette Hall. Free. For informa
tion, call 346-5003, Reception at 3:40 p.m. in the Paul Olum Atrium of
Willamette Hall.
•O’Fallon Lecture: Law Professor Frank Michelman, Harvard University, delivers
theColin Ruagh Thomas O'Fallon Memorial Lecture in Lawand American Cul
ture, “Machiavelli in Robes? The Court in the Election.” 7:30 p.m. Room 175,
Knight Law Center. Free. For information, call 346-3934. Reception follows.
Student Groups
Advertise your events in the
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