March 4, 2011
Noting that when she was in college, spring break meant fun in the sun, Jeanne Garvey, wife of CUA's President John Garvey, will be trying out an alternative this year.
Mrs. Garvey and her daughter, Clare, a student at Boston College, will join 18 students from CUA on the annual spring break trip to Kingston, Jamaica, sponsored by the Office of Campus Ministry.
"I am especially looking forward to getting to know the CUA students on the trip, and also helping out in the convent school," says Garvey, a mother of five and grandmother to 12.
In addition to the group going to Jamaica, 60 students will embark on Habitat for Humanity trips. All of them gathered at a commissioning Mass on Friday, March 4, before leaving for their trips this weekend.
The Habitat for Humanity groups will travel to Taos, N.M.; Takoma, Wash.; and Corpus Christi, Texas, to renovate and build houses. The students in Jamaica will volunteer with the St. Patrick's Foundation working in schools tutoring children and assisting at a home for the abandoned elderly.
Students in the Spanish for Healthcare program will take a service learning trip to Monte Cristi, Dominican Republic. They will work in the poorest communities - including "batey" (banana-worker) communities - which have limited access to health care. Students will stay in an orphanage there while assisting physicians at the clinics.