Important decisions made by Marquette students include figuring out how to spend their winter and spring breaks. Some may choose to relax on a beach or visit friends and family. But, be aware that there are other opportunities to meet new people and expand your horizons through a little service for, and with, others: it is called the Marquette Action Program (M.A.P.). Some may be familiar with this program but for the others…here’s a little history.
M.A.P., run by University Ministry, sends students to sites across the country to serve people in those communities over Spring Break. Participants will travel with a handful of Marquette students, led by former M.A.P. participants, and work in a variety of different ways, including building and repairing homes, working in soup kitchens and homeless shelters and more.
Susan Mountin, director of the Manresa Project, recalls the birth of the service program.
“The first trip launched in the spring of 1978 with the help and leadership of Sister Lucy Edelbeck, OP (Order of Preachers), a University Ministry employee.”
Edelbeck emphasized that the purpose of the experience is not so much to “do service” but to learn about and begin to understand the reality of the people at the sites,” Mountin said.
Much of the insight gained from these trips by the participants comes from conversation and reflection with those they serve as well as with those they work with. With this mission in mind, students travelled to the original sites of the sugar fields in Louisiana and at various sites in Appalachia.
Since this first trip, sites have expanded to Kentucky, Baltimore, Oklahoma, New Orleans and many others. Trips were offered in both the winter and spring breaks, but are now limited just to Spring Break. The nature of the work and sites may change over time, but the relationships that participants cultivate on a M.A.P. trip are a constant.
As the M.A.P. program grew, a new desire for an international experience emerged from students; hence, the International Marquette Action Program (I.M.A.P) was born. Dental students, led by Ron Pruhs, went to Jamaica to provide dental care for the people of this Caribbean country. The program expanded to bring undergraduate students on the trip to spend time in orphanages and nursing homes in Kingstown, Jamaica.
Another site, Belize, was added to further expand the program. Students work with St. Peter Claver Parish and the Rev. Dick Pearl, S.J. to build a church in a remote Mayan village. This writer had the privilege of going to Belize this past January on the IMAP trip, and it was truly a life-changing experience. Although much of the poverty seen was shocking, looking look past the exterior one sees personality in the people. Both Jamaica and Belize are current sites for the I.M.A.P. program.
College of Arts and Sciences Senior Stephen Horras, a M.A.P alumnus, emphasized the aspect of faith in his experience with the program.
“I decided to go on a MAP trip because I recognized that my faith, which has always been crucial to me, was a spoken faith and not so much of a lived faith,” Horras said.
Proponents argue that these trips can be an integral part of one’s education as a student at Marquette. There may not be much time on a beach during a spring M.A.P trip to Detroit, but it is something participants remember for a long time.
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