Community Service Trips: Asheville/Cherokee, N.C., Jamaica
During fall and winter breaks, Community Service students
travel to Asheville and Cherokee, N.C., where they work
in a homeless shelter and with a family and children services
agency. For spring break, they travel to Jamaica to work with
abused children, a squatter's community, and the elderly.
"It can be tough," acknowledges Joli Anderson, Baylor's Community
Service Director. "In Jamaica, the students push themselves
emotionally, mentally, and physically. Through community service,
students learn first hand about sociology, political science,
economics, history, geography, and psychology. We do a lot of
reflection and share conversations that build on what they have
learned in the classroom. They've read about the Trail of Tears,
but then they meet Cherokee people on the Asheville trip and
hear a Native American's perspective on our country's history.
That experience brings humanity to the pages of their textbook."