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More than 75 students, faculty and staff from Greenville College were dispatched to seven organizations in Metro St. Louis March 19-21 in the inaugural launching of a new program. Funded by a grant from the Chatlos Foundation, Urban Plunge is a co-curricular student-directed program connecting student resources with inner-city needs.
Under the supervision of Norm Hall, dean of student development and leadership, and directed by student Patrick Miller, vice president of student association, Urban Plunge provided the opportunity for students to experience the challenges of life in the inner city and serve the people who live there.
Organizations served included HOPE Center for Children, Karen House, Salvation Army Family Haven, Lighthouse Free Methodist Church and Community Outreach Center, World Impact, St. Vincent Home for Children, and Aldersgate United Methodist Church. Service projects ranged from art and theater presentations, music workshops, computer classes, and athletic clinics to trash pick-up, food reclamation, building repair and clean-up, and food service.
The goal of Urban Plunge is to expand participants' worldviews through education about urban culture, development of cross-cultural relationships, exposure to the inner city, and service to the needs of the inner-city communities. Throughout the 1998-99 school year Patrick Miller shepherded the program from its infancy through many phases of growth, including research, planning, staff recruitment and training, and participant enrollment.
Student leadership also included John Heater and Jonathan McFarland, assistant directors; Josh Heilman, service project development; Jessica Krieger, orientation and education development; Aaron Woods, publicist and historian; and Laura Hurst, John Crenshaw, Lenora Fisher and Rebecca Gigous, small group leaders.
Urban Plunge is one more example of Greenville College's commitment to the development of character and service in the lives of its students.
An Urban Plunge Journal
Selections from the journal
of Michael Ritter
Student Association President
3/19/99: I started this experience with a bad attitude. Because of some last-minute details I helped with, I missed the first half of the commissioning service. I sat next to someone who said he had a bad attitude, too. We ended up being in the same group and playing with the same three kids at St. Vincent?s. It?s kind of neat how things like that work out.
As the people here were showing us around, they warned us about the children. So I didn?t know what to expect when Ken Hall (the assistant director) left us in a room with three 8- to 10-year-old boys. They were playing with six pieces of Hot Wheels track. My friend and I joined in.
3/20/99: We got up a little slower than we should have and barely got in on the end of breakfast. I sat with some of the guys from our group and one of the boys with whom I was playing last night. He was excited to see us.
After breakfast, Jack (the head of maintenance) showed us the green storage room we were to paint white. It was huge! We had to paint the two smaller walls, ceiling, trim, and a staircase and banister at one end of the room.
I?m learning how hard it is for me to follow someone else?s direction in such a setting. I kept walking around, going and asking Jack questions, and a variety of other ?managerial? tasks. I have a hard time when others don?t do things the way I think they should be done. So today stretched me.
Laura Hurst and I were talking after dinner about the trip. I told her I was afraid we thought we were doing everyone some great service by coming to the city and doing the ?work of God.? My coming probably won?t have a profound impact on the kids here; they won?t even remember my name. The kids, though, will have a profound impact on me.
3/21/99: We went to a worship service [this morning] led by a Roman Catholic lay minister. I watched the kids, and I was impressed. They were picking up a lot of the things the minister was saying, and that was encouraging. I?m glad I took the time to do this, and hope I?ll have the opportunity to do it again. |
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