Known as the Panama Plunge, the two-week trip is designed to
strengthen the participants’ foundation of faith and deepen their
sense of spirituality by immersing them into a situation vastly
different from anything they’ve ever experienced. Students who
wished to participate underwent an extensive screening and prepar
ation process conducted by staff members of the University’s Office
of Campus Ministry and members of the Vincentian community. Of the
nearly 60 applicants, 15 were finally selected to take part in this
transformative event.
After arriving in Panama, students met their host families and
began to learn the realities of life in the region. They spent
their days on a variety of labor-intensive projects, such as
working on pepper farms, tomato farms, sugar cane plantations and
dairy farms, quickly becoming part of their new families by doing
the same chores as their hosts. “The Vincentian charism stresses
mutuality and reciprocity,” said Tori Migliore ’98C, ’01GEd, Campus
Director, University Ministry. “One of the keys of the trip is to
really bond with the host families. For example, if a student lives
with a dairy farming family, they get up at 4 a.m. to milk the
cows, clean everything up, eat lunch, milk the cows again in the
afternoon, clean up again and come home to dinner with their
families. They quickly see how hard that work really is. Being a
real part of these families has a profound effect on our students,
allowing them to embrace the dignity of these hard-working and
genuinely spiritual people. It’s something they’ll never
forget.”
One of the participants in the most recent Panama Plunge was
Joseph C. O’Connor ’82CBA, a member of the University’s Board of
Trustees, who was accompanied by his daughter Brianna, a sophomore
at Fordham University, and his niece Kristin Murphy, a sophomore at
Providence College. A prayerful man who wanted to deepen his own
understanding of what it means to serve the poor, O’Connor took
time away from his job and family to live as a modern day
Vincent.
“I decided
to take part in the Panama Plunge because I felt that, despite my
23 years of active involvement with St. John’s, I wanted to take
part in something that is perhaps the most purely Vincentian of
everything our university has to offer,” said O’Connor. “Since I
have been a Trustee, I have been so moved by our students, our
Campus Ministers and our Vincentian priests unending zeal for
service to the poor and combating social injustice.”
He noted that joining the group of students in Panama was a
truly transforming experience. His activities included clearing
fields on a farm, expanding the foundation to the chapel in town,
assisting in the production of sugar from sugar cane and painting
the local elementary school. The opportunity, however, to live with
a family in Panama — to eat, laugh, pray and discuss their shared
humanity — was what he treasured most in his daily routines.
“The families of Panama gave us literally the food we ate, the
beds we slept in and replaced the loving families we temporarily
left behind in the United States,” said O’Connor. “I deeply and
genuinely learned that is in giving that we receive.”
According to Migliore, the most defining aspect of the Panama
Plunge is “…the strengthening of everyone’s foundation of faith.
Anytime our prayer life is calling us to be a stronger voice for
the poor, our foundation is not only about ourselves but about
others as well. What’s different about service at St. John’s is
that we get to know the names and see the innate goodness of the
poor that we’re serving. It allows us to see the dignity of God in
everyone, which is really special.”