Last year, approximately 100 La Salle students traveled to Harlan, KY, New Bern, NC,  Tijuana, Mexico, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to participate in student-led service trips. The students who participate in Los Niños, Project Appalachia, Project Mapendo or Habitat for Humanity 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 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 off. 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:

Service Trips

Los Niños
Tijuana, Mexico – May
La Salle’s Los Niños trip takes a group of approximately 23 students to Tijuana, Mexico, for ten days in early May. There, they work side-by-side with the communities of the Mexican border region in a variety of development initiatives, usually focused on the construction and renovation of schools and community centers. Time is also spent visiting with children in a local orphanage and engaging in a variety of educational and cultural enrichment activities. For more information, visit www.losninosinternational.org

Project Appalachia
Harlan, Kentucky – Spring Break
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, visit www.geocities.com/coapinc

Habitat for Humanity
Site varies by year – May
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 please visit the following website: http://www.habitat.org

Project Mapendo
Tanzania, Africa – May
Approximately 15 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 please visit the following website: www.maryknollafrica.org  

Pre-Trip Expectations

• Fundraising
• Attending weekly meetings
• Being open to new experiences
• Team building

Trip Expectations

• Participating in and leading reflections
• Participating in on-site projects
• Working in partnership with the local community
• Working together as a team

Click here to apply for one of the Service Trips above