Several Rider University students will embark on experiential service learning opportunities in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, West Indies during their winter break.

For seven students and two alumni, it will be a return trip to the Dominican Republic. While there (January 5 through 18), they will renovate two children's orphanages. The renovation projects are an expansion of the work they began during their previous spring break. Their focal points are the Hogar Escuela Armando Rosenberg Home and School, located in Sabana Perdida, the largest barrio in the Dominican Republic, and the Escuela Ave Maria, an orphanage of 150 students and a school from pre-school to high school.

Tasks will include making repairs, upgrading facilities, teaching English as a second language and conducting sports camps. The trip is sponsored by the University's Catholic Campus Ministry and the Center for Multicultural Affairs and Community Service in cooperation with The Orchid Foundation, a non-profit organization established by the Rotarians of Brigantine, NJ.

Over the year, Rider students have sponsored fundraising events to help pay for a water purification system at the orphanages. To date, they have raised more than $4,000 by holding car washes and bowling parties. Several have donated the money they have earned while working at Great Adventure. "They are again offering their services because they were so moved by the need and, more importantly, by the warm reception and acceptance which they received from the students and faculty," said Father Bruno Ugliano, Rider's Catholic Chaplain. "They wanted to go on their own time and for a longer period because they felt obligated to offer assistance."

The students will be accompanied to Santo Domingo by Lawrenceville resident, Bruce Evans, Jr., who graduated from Rider in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in communication. Evans, an associate Catholic chaplain at Rider, has coordinated and led all trips to Santo Domingo.

Ten students will tutor children in an orphanage, two public schools and a church-related school in Jamaica (leaving January 5 and returning January 20). A Rider tradition since 1990, the University's international program engages students in learning experiences foreign from what they are accustomed. Using the skills and knowledge base they have acquired in their academic majors, they are oriented to a new culture, way of life, and new perspectives.

The curriculum, designed by program co-coordinators, the Rev. Nancy Schluter, Rider's Protestant Chaplain, and Don Brown, director of Rider's Center for Multicultural Affairs and Community Service, places special emphasis on service learning.

Not only are students required to complete reading assignments to better understand Jamaican culture and service learning theory, they must prepare for their experience introspectively by attending seminars prior to embarking on their trip as well as during the course of the semester. Keeping a personal journal, they must document and evaluate their experiences in a final project, usually a paper.

The Rider group will stay at the United Theological College in Kingston. They will assist at Pringle Home for Children and Iona School. All are under the auspices of The United Church of Jamaica-Grand Cayman, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Disciples of Christ Church.

Said Rev. Schluter: "Our Rider students leave this country with high expectations of providing services, however year after year they return to the United States knowing they have received much more than they gave, which is a great blessing in our culture with such emphasis on material things."