Students Seek Alternative Spring Break Options to Learn, Serve Community

Each year Dr. Vania Coelho, Professor of Biology in the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, offers an International Field Biology course focused on a specific eco-system in a different part of the world. This spring the class studied tropical forests in Thailand. Biology and chemistry students spent a week exploring the flora and fauna of this diverse eco-system through activities including: trekking through native tropical forests at a UNESCO World Heritage Site — Khao Yai National Park, visiting a wildlife quarantine center to learn about illegal animal trafficking, and snorkeling at coral reef ecosystems and other marine habitats at Tarutao National Park in the Andaman Sea.

Matthew Garcia, Assistant Professor of Art, Design, & Visual Studies, and Michael Pujals, Scholarly Communications Librarian, led students through the deserts of Arizona and California to study desert sustainability, art and ecology. They examined land art indigenous ecology through visits to Acrostanti, Joshua Tree National Park, San Xavier Co-op, and the Blue Sky Center.

Sr. Mary Soher, O.P., Director of Campus Ministry, and Giulia Welch, Assistant Director of Global Learning in the Global Education Office, co-led the La Bamba Experience, which allowed students to explore immigration from each side of the US and Mexican border zones.

In San Diego, the students met with agents from US Customs and Border Patrol and with members of the American Friends Service Committee to discuss a range of issues, including ICE raids and immigrant rights. The group also visited the Safe Harbors Network, an organization that houses families of refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers waiting for their court dates.

In Mexico, the students visited the Franciscan Sisters at the Casa de los Pobres, an order working with the immigrant population of Tijuana. They also met with residents of the Deported Veterans Support House to hear about the work being done to support deported US veterans on their path to self-sufficiency.

Later in the week, the students talked with Sister Gene McNally, O.P., about her ministry’s work caring for residents of Colonia Esperanza, an arid and depressed canyon area to the east of the city. On their last day, the students worked with Border Angels to bring lunch to day laborers before heading out to the desert to make a water drop near Jacumba Springs. Students participating in this program met the Honors Program Multi-Cultural Experience requirement.