While many students eagerly await traveling back home during fall break to spend time with their families and catch up on sleep, other students will spend their break serving others on service trips sponsored by Notre Dame.
New this year, the “Kinship: Milwaukee” service trip, sponsored by Campus Ministry, will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Becky Czarnecki, assistant director of faith and justice, and Cam Stillson, coordinator of mercy works, will participate in the trip, alongside 13 students.
“In 2022, Campus Ministry added a particular focus on faith and justice, which includes service, immersions, and opportunities to engage with justice issues,” Czarnecki said. “After previous trips to the Farm of the Child in Honduras and local immersion experiences in South Bend, ‘Kinship: Milwaukee’ is our first domestic immersion trip.”
Students will interact with the local community of Milwaukee as they visit community meals sites, a clothing distribution center, an urban farm and more. Students will spend the trip exploring the idea of kinship with the community around them, as well as engage in and learn about justice issues in the city of Milwaukee.
Another group of students will travel to St. Andre House, located in Phoenix, Arizona. The trip is sponsored by Dunne Hall and the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture.
Fr. Eric Schimmel, C.S.C., the rector of Dunne Hall, and Sarah Motter, the rector of Breen-Phillps Hall, will travel with eight students, including two from Dunne Hall and one student each from Badin Hall, Breen-Phillips Hall, Lewis Hall, Lyons Hall and Walsh Hall.
Andre House, named after the Holy Cross brother St. Andre Bessette, aims to respond to the basic needs of the poor and make God known, loved and served in their community. The students spend much of their time serving the guests of Andre House and growing their faith by helping the poor.
Paul Gates, a current student at Old College undergraduate seminary, went on the trip last year and also spent some time at Andre House last summer. He shared how Andre House has made an impact on him.
“My experience there was certainly life changing, and one of the great realizations from my time at Andre House was the way in which the materially poor have great access to spiritual truths. I feel as if I had a great opportunity to deepen my faith in that space,” Gates said.
Having directed Andre House for six years, Schimmel has participated in the trip for the past three years, sponsored by Dunne Hall. He described the experience as a demanding week for students, with days starting at 9 a.m. and lasting until after 7 p.m.
“Students will also work in a clothing closet, help do laundry for the guests, offer showers, distribute blankets and offer hospitality to people who too often get negatively stereotyped,” Schimmel said.
The main event at Andre House is dinner, which is offered six nights a week. Over 600 plates are served each evening, and the students will help prepare the meals from scratch, serve them to the house’s guests and clean up after the meals.
Kate Apelian, a current student who participated in the trip last year, recounted her experience.
“My time at Andre House was a healing and hopeful experience for me. I left feeling gifted by the people I had encountered there, by their lovingness and warmth,” Apelian said. “I felt as though a veil had been lifted in my life: I was now able to see the dignity inherent in all people in a way that was deeper than I had before.”
Schimmel, too, stressed the transforming effect of the service trip.
“Andre House is a place where we not only serve guests, but there are multiple opportunities to know the guests, recognize and uphold their dignity and be a light to shine God's love on them,” Schimmel said. “My experience is that when we do so, our encounter with the guests touches our hearts and souls as we realize more profoundly God's love for us.”
