It is the responsibility of every Vincentian graduate to go out
into the world and make a difference – large or small. Campus
Ministry throughout the year coordinates an array of events and
programs to assist students in understanding how to use their gifts
and talents to that end.
One of the most significant learning experiences of the past
academic year was Sleep Out for the Homeless. For two nights,
beginning on Ash Wednesday, 30 students camped out in blankets and
cardboard boxes on the Great Lawn of the Queens campus.
“We wanted to give students a 48-hour experience of homelessness
and poverty,” explains Pamela Shea- Byrnes, Associate Vice
President of Campus Ministry. “It was a great view into the lack of
choice a homeless person has in how he lives and eats. It was a
powerful experience.”
The Academic
Service-Learning Office coordinates the University’s
service-learning program in which students apply their class work
through volunteering in community settings. During the 2004-05
academic year, 242 faculty members and 3,338 students on the Queens
and Staten Island campuses were placed in service-learning
opportunities, a 48% and 45% increase, respectively, over the prior
year.
Service is not for students only. The entire St. John’s
University Community contributes to keeping alive the spirit and
mission of St. Vincent de Paul. For example, more than 600 members
of the University family on all five campuses devoted a day to
serving the needs of local communities during the Third Annual
University Service Day, held in honor of Vincent’s feast day.
Nearly 200 employees and students volunteered at the
Bread and Life Soup Kitchen in Brooklyn this past academic
year, and employee groups dedicated personal time to, among other
initiatives, hand knitting scarves, hats and blankets for the
homeless.
In 2004-05, 90% of St. John's student-athletes also participated
in community service. Two hundred seventy Red Storm athletes
volunteered over 700 hours of service to the local community. The
athletes assisted the less fortunate in the Bread and Life Soup
Kitchen, St. John's Home for Boys, St. John the Baptist School, St.
Nicholas of Tolentine shelter and through several service
events.
Founder’s Week, held each January, offers a variety of programs
and activities celebrating St. Vincent and his mission. The 2005
event had as its theme “the virtue of hope – the force that keeps
our faith alive and our love active.” Among the week’s highlights
was the 11th Annual Vincentian Chair of Social Justice Lecture
delivered by Rev. G. Gregory Gay, C.M., Superior General of the
Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity, whose
talk was entitled “A Passion for Justice.”
At St. John’s every opportunity is taken to make the mission
come alive. “In doing service, we come to understand God better and
it transforms us, ”concludes Ms. Shea-Byrnes.