UMAS offers students opportunities to confront the challenges that many local communities face.  These service trips embody the Lasallian vision of intellectual and spiritual development by working together to foster growth, understanding, and change as students experience a deeper sense of what it means to live and work in solidarity with a community.

Lasallian Service trips are dedicated to living out Lasallian values by gaining understanding of the global community and the social justice issues that affect that community.  Through capacity building efforts, La Salle students discover the importance of giving back while learning about themselves and others.  Students partner with local communities and immerse themselves in cultures by building relationships with the people they serve.  Lasallian service trips strive to improve the quality of life within the global community by acting on the natural human instinct to help each other.

Last year, approximately 100 La Salle students traveled across the country and globe to participate in student-led service trips. The students who participate in Blackfeet Montana, Estudiantes Unidos, Habitat for Humanity, Project Appalachia, or Project Mapendo spend their spring break or a week or more after school ends performing a variety of service projects for different special needs groups.

All of La Salle’s service trips are funded through on- and off-campus fundraising activities, such as a live auction, a pizza and cookie dough sale, and “basket bidding,” where different groups and people on campus put together baskets of goodies to be raffled. Service trips are fantastic opportunities for you to see other parts of our world and help those in need beyond your immediate community. Here’s a little about each service trip:

Upcoming Service Trips

Blackfeet Montana

Browning, MT – January 2011

A small group of students travel to Browning, MT, to volunteer at the De La Salle Blackfeet School.  There, they work as tutors and in-class support, helping to show the importance of education and working to instill the desire for further learning.  For more information on our community partner, please visit the following website:http://www.dlsbs.org/index.html

Project Appalachia

Harlan, Kentucky – Spring Break, March 2011

Every Spring Break, 40 students drive 12 hours to Harlan, Ky., to partner for a week with COAP (Christian Outreach with Appalachian People). The students of Project Appalachia participate in home development projects for low-income families who are struggling to maintain quality living conditions. In the process, the students gain an enhanced understanding of the culture and the underlying causes of the economic hardship that faces this particular area of the Appalachian region. For more information on our community partner, visit www.geocities.com/coapinc

Habitat for Humanity

Site varies by year – May2011

Nearly 20 Students travel to an East Coast destination in early May to work with Habitat for Humanity.   This non-profit organization is involved in home rehabilitation and construction projects for families in need.  Habitat for Humanity seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world, and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action.  In addition to home construction projects, students partake in activities relative to the region that they are working in; they also learn first-hand about the issue of poverty and homelessness.  For more information on our community partner, please visit the following website: http://www.habitat.org

Estudiantes Unidos

San Martín Jilotepeque, Guatemala– May 2011

Now in its third year, approximately 20 students will travel to Guatemala to work with SHARE Guatemala.  There, they work side-by-side with local Mayan communities in a variety of development initiatives, usually focused on the construction and renovation of schools and community centers. Time is also spent visiting a school for children with special needs and engaging in a variety of educational and cultural enrichment activities. For more information on our community partner, visit www.shareguatemala.org.

Blackfeet Montana

Browning, MT – January 2011

A group of 10 students will travel to Browning, MT, to volunteer at the De La Salle Blackfeet School.  There, they work as tutors and in-class support, helping to show the importance of education and working to instill the desire for further learning.  For more information on our community partner, please visit the following website:http://www.dlsbs.org/index.html

Project Mapendo

Tanzania, Africa – May2011

A small group of students will participate in this service trip, traveling to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in May for three weeks.  La Salle’s Project Mapendo team partners with the Maryknoll missionaries in East Africa.   While in Dar es Salaam, the students tutor Tanzanian students in English and other life skills.  Apart from the direct service component, the students take every opportunity to plunge into the Tanzania culture in an effort to learn about the global community in which we live.   For more information on our community partner, please visit the following website: www.maryknollafrica.org