EI GHT OF EI GHTEEN SERVI CE TRI PS TO BE CUT THI S YEAR Administration Point to Budget Problems And Culture Shift As Reason For The Cut, Students Displeased. By L iam Scott '17 New Orleans, Haiti, and Tohatchi are among the places in contention to no longer be destinations for Prep students on service trips. The news reached Mr. Deitch?s office mere weeks ago and became public last week. While the school?s administration may have good intentions, the prospects of ending longtime relationships with distant charitable organizations and that a large sum of juniors will not be able to travel for service this summer have many students outraged. The decision is tied in closely with the doctrine of cura urbi, an up- and- coming Jesuit slogan meaning ?care for the city.? From the perspective of administrators such as Father John Swope ?72 and Mr. Jason Zazyczny ?90, cutting many of the service trips will open opportunities for Prep students to serve in our own city of Philadelphia, thereby caring for the city in which we dwell.
so important because we bring our Philly roots to struggling parts of the country,? affirms Johnny Procopio, a junior who traveled to Ghana last summer with the Global Leaders of America organization. ?The Prep provides so many services for the city of Philadelphia and indeed we should continue those services, but cutting service trips would be detrimental to the St. Joseph?s Prep experience. It is through service trips that Prep brothers get to know each other and their teachers in unexpected ways while simultaneously making a difference in our world, and by extension, our city.? Even underclassmen whose view of service is still expanding are perturbed by the news. ?Doing service outside of our city simply makes students more eager to serve,? points out Scott Hibbs ?19. This straightforward analysis is shared widely among the student body. To many, the idea of leaving home for a week ser-
"...I gnatius challenged us to 'set the world on fire,' not just our hometown." However, many students are skeptical. ?Going to a new environment gives you a different and valuable sense of people and culture,? explains senior Dave Molz, visibly unsettled upon hearing the news for the first time. ?It gives you a new perspective, a perspective you could not acquire without immersing yourself in that new culture.? And Molz isn?t the only one reacting to the news in such a way. One senior that will remain anonymous admitted plainly that he ?wanted to cry? when he heard about the cutting of service trips. ?All I could think about was one woman from my trip who worked with Prep guys every single summer. She loved us. She thought that we were the sweetest and nicest young men in the world. It kills me to think that she might not get to meet any more of us." Kevin Ketchell, senior and member of the Prep hockey team, illustrates his dismay with the decision: ?Service that gets you out of Philly is necessary because it shows that we care about places other than just where we live. Ignatius challenged us to ?set the world on fire,? not just our hometown.? ?Service outside of Philly is
vice is exponentially more exciting, compelling, powerful, and beneficial. Mr. Deitch gave a more crisp picture of the situation at large. He put forth some simple and nonpartisan facts about the shift that is occurring here. ?At the minimum this decision says that the vision on how to implement our mission, the vision put forth years ago, is changing.? He then expanded on how distant service trips began at the Prep. ?The reason we went far away in the first place was because we felt like we wanted to match the needs of the world. We go to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina because New Orleans was devastated. When we got there, we were so overwhelmed with what we saw that we felt like we needed to commit to this place for a long time. The people that live on the Navajo reservation, for another example, are dealing with real rural poverty - it is one of the poorest areas in our country. So we go there to meet that need. We go to the U.S- Mexico border because immigration is such an important topic that we want our students have a better sense of. The program was started to provide a formative experience for our students. We have always looked at these service trips like retreats? a small group physically going away together and
praying, reflecting, having conversations about what they were seeing, experiencing, and feeling. The idea being that you then take that experience back to the Prep to make this place better. I think that there are a lot of advantages to going away from that what you know to have a separate and distinct experience.? Mr. Zazyczny?s view is slightly dissimilar. When asked to elaborate on the decision to stay local, the principal responded: ?We had a review of what we are doing servicewise, and some of the focus was to consider what we are doing locally within our own neighborhood and throughout Philadelphia. This is not to undermine the fact that we do already focus on issues within the city, but this push is definitely focusing a lot of the energy on our neighborhood.? When asked if there were any other factors contributing to the decision, Zazyczny answered, ?When you look at a school, you are looking at finances also; I don?t think that is a hidden piece of this. We started with three or so service projects and now we are up to eighteen, so that has really grown. It also has been a pretty large expense for the school, even though families do contribute.? Mr. Zazyczny did definitively confirm that money saved from service trip cuts would not be put towards the Villiger Hall renovations. The President?s Office could not offer a quote in time for the publication The rhetoric that local service trumps distant service, or visa versa, is repudiated beyond the walls of the Prep. Just this year, the Harvard Graduate School of Education released a comprehensive report, which was accredited by the Presidents and Deans of Admission of copious elite institutions of higher education entitled ?Turning the Tide.? The purpose of the report is to take a critical look at the college admissions process and the microscopes that students are placed under in high school. What many consider to be the most scholarly of sources quotes: ?What should matter in admissions is not whether service occurred locally or in some distant place but students? willingness to immerse themselves in an experience and the emotional and ethical awareness and commitments this generates? (10). David McCabe ?19 said ?We have the opportunity for service in Philadelphia every day. When you take that service across the country to a
The New Or leans Tr ip, a Prep favor ite, is one of many tr ips that may be cut.
The Chapar r al, NM group atop the Fr anklin M ountains in El Paso, TX
The Rur al Vir ginia Tr ip spent their time helping an elder ly couple around the house, and making tr ails for the community. different place with a different culture, different poverty, and different needs, it is guaranteed to be a different experience.? Watching these rumors spread amongst the students, it is abundantly clear that they want answers. A majority of the students want to see this
decision reverted, or at least they want to be convinced that it is the necessary move. The decisions on which trips will be cut is at the discretion of Mr. Deitch and the Ignatian Service Office, and will be forthcoming.