May 04, 2006
A children’s hospital for critically-ill children, a nursing
home, a veterans’ hospital, and a food pantry serving the very poor
— placements for St. John’s students performing service learning —
inspired four outstanding reflection papers that were recognized by
the University’s Service Learning department at the Student Life
Awards Dinner held at Leonard’s of Great Neck on April 26. The
evening event recognized 115 students —all seniors other than the
reflection-paper winners — for their leadership and service to the
University and the greater community.
The award-winning reflections written during the fall semester
by three Queens campus students — Valerie Salinas, Hannah Spencer
and Katie Honan ― and one former Staten Island student — Robert
Ryan — who graduated in January, capture the emotions they
experienced while helping others as part of their course-work
requirements. The students each received a $100 gift certificate at
the campus book store, and a handsome plaque.
Award Winning Papers: Podcast and
Transcripts
“The winners of the Academic Service-Learning Essay Contest
submitted papers that were excellently written—expressing the
tradition of service that follows the Vincentian Mission, while
also illustrating an extraordinary sense about life and learning in
general,” comments Academic Service-Learning Coordinator Adriana C.
Tomasino. She explains that her department guides the students in
selecting an appropriate placement, but that the students take the
initiative to apply to the facilities and interview with them on
their own.
Assisting Young Children
Sophomore Valerie Salinas, an elementary-education major,
extended the 15 hours of service required in her theology course
into a four-hour-per-week commitment for the entire semester and
into the winter break. “I wanted to volunteer at St. Mary’s
Hospital to assist sick children before the service-learning
requirement came up,” she says. “Although I mainly kept young
children company, I found the work fulfilling,” she says.
“I’d like to think the children get something out of me being
there, that I brighten up their day as much as they brighten up
mine,” she writes in a reflection paper she wrote for the course,
“Jesus and the Christian Faith.” “…the love and compassion Jesus
asks his people to give to others is the same love and compassion I
was asked to give to these kids….I can only hope I can continue to
follow the example Jesus gives in Matthew’s gospel and give my life
a little meaning by reaching out to others.”
Assisting Infirmed Seniors
Freshman Hannah Spencer did the service-learning requirement
in “Honors Philosophy of the Human Person” at Chapin Nursing Home
in Queens. She socialized with the elderly residents,
teaching them to crochet and helping with “whatever activities were
going on” for at least two hours a week. “I loved it there and
would volunteer even if it weren’t a course requirement,” she
says.
Although it took her a few visits to become comfortable, she
writes that by the fourth visit, “I found out that I could relate
to most of the residents in much simpler ways that I first
expected. I discovered that smiles are a universal sign of joy,
even to people who do not appear to be cognizant of the world
around them. I also found out that I could easily communicate with
my physical presence. By holding someone’s hand or arm as we walked
around the room, I could completely change the way we related.”
Assisting Hospital Patients
Junior Katie Honan, a television and film major, did the
service-learning required of her as part of an Anthropology Core
class, at St. Albans Veterans Hospital, which includes both
primary- and extended-care centers. Influenced by her father, a
retired Captain in the Naval Reserve who is also the Commander in
Chief of his American Legion, she decided to assist veterans.
“I was always aware of some of the psychological and physical
issues that sometimes affect veterans, and saw it as a good
opportunity to help a group of people as well as learn about human
development,” she writes.
No stranger to volunteer work, Katie also participates with
other St. John’s students in the Midnight Run (which distributes
food to the homeless in Manhattan during the evenings). She spent
20 hours at the Veterans Hospital last semester, and usually
assisted with BINGO on Monday nights.
Distributed Food at Pantry
Through the Honors Capstone in Theology course that Staten Island
campus senior Robert J. Ryan took last semester, he spent the day
helping to distribute sacks of uncooked ingredients to patrons of
St. Thomas Aquinas Food Pantry in Brooklyn. A Criminal Justice
Major who completed his St. John’s education last semester, he
witnessed people lining up before 7 a.m. for canned foods and dry
goods, which he helped to distribute to about 200 people by
evening.
“…In my short nine hours of work, I witnessed scenes that I wish
I could forget,” he writes. “Elderly men and women were dressed in
rags, waiting in 40-degree temperatures at eight in the morning,
just to get a few bags of rice, macaroni and beans. Many people had
with them small children whose cries echo down the dilapidated
hallways of the food pantry. How could the richest and most
powerful nation the world has even seen allow this to go on?”