Helping Haiti from our Home

Today was a pretty inspiring day for me, most especially around the noon hour. I received an email that went out to many student organizations, most especially those dedicated to volunteering. The email was brief, saying only that there would be a brainstorming meeting Thursday at the lunch hour to discuss efforts to help Haiti. I figured that a handful of people would show up, not because I didn’t have faith in the student body that they were willing to help, but because college inboxes are flooded everyday with emails about meetings to go and they all manage to be at the exact same time. But the turn out was more than I could have hoped for.

We gathered in one of our only few lectures halls on campus and students from all different organizations, not even just volunteer ones, met and brainstormed ideas about how we could help those in Haiti from afar. There were talks of benefit concerts, collaborations with other colleges, t-shirt drives, wristband sales, and the list went on and on. Honestly, I sat there in awe at how willing everyone was to lend a hand. What I think hit home for a lot of people was the few speakers we had at the beginning of the meeting. They were a few members from our own CSA, the Caribbean Students Association. Haiti is a place close to their hearts, especially one whose family actually lives in Haiti, and they were eager to get people involved. Although, it felt like the energy to make a difference overseas was already there.

The question remains just what exactly our student body will do to raise funds to send over to Haiti. But with the energy and enthusiasm I saw today, it is evident that we will for sure go above and beyond what is expected. Isn’t that an IC student anyway?

“Travel with a Purpose”

One of the main things I hear about our country with the economy being bad is the fact that so many people are deciding to go to college or join volunteer organizations like the Peace Corps. And of course the reason is because there are not a lot of jobs out there and if you are done with college, you most likely won’t have to start paying loans back. But there are so many other organizations where people can volunteer and not necessarily do it for two years. Ever hear of International Student Volunteers?

This past summer I spent a month, having the time of my life in The Land of the Long White Cloud, New Zealand. And the reason I went was because I heard about this awesome program called ISV, where you  “travel with a purpose.” Basically, they send you to countries across the world to volunteer at either conservation projects or community development projects. Thousands of student apply and thousands go and do their work all throughout the year. After two weeks of volunteering, ISV sends students on a two-week adventure tour of the country they were volunteering in to immerse themselves in the culture. It really is a spectacular program.

I mention this because this Saturday I headed to Rochester for an ISV Rep Conference. They have been holding these small conferences all across the U.S. over the past few months, where local ISV alumni (representatives really) gather together to discuss ways in order to encourage other students to make the commitment to volunteering overseas. And if making a month long time commitment is too much, students can just do the two volunteer weeks. And if that is still too long, I just found out they are collecting donations on their website that will go directly to the Red Cross efforts in Haiti. Another Kudos!