Mary Lyon would be proud.
Following her example of making a difference in the world, twelve
Mount Holyoke students will travel to the nation's capital March 11
to spend their spring break working in soup kitchens and grappling
with the politics of hunger. The students will be accompanied by
Anita Magovern, chaplain to the College, and Rochelle Calhoun,
associate dean of the College. The Washington Seminar Center, which
is part of Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, is selecting the soup
kitchens, and likely sites include SOME (So That Others Might Eat),
the Washington City Church of the Brethren on Capitol Hill, and the
Capital Area Common Food Bank, a large warehouse that serves as a
distribution center. The trip is the culmination
of the yearlong Service and Leadership Odyssey program (SLO)
developed last year by Calhoun and Andrea Ayvazian, dean of the
religious life. The odyssey is designed to enable diverse
constituencies within MHC to "do something active together--to share
space with the goal of bridging differences and establishing
connections," says Calhoun. Last year's project brought together an
ethnically and religiously diverse group of students who traveled to
Birmingham, Alabama, where they helped rebuild a church that had
burned. The trip was included in an article published in U.S. News
and World Report. According to Liddy Gerchman
'02, who participated in the Odyssey program last year and will do so
this year as well, "I can't imagine a school vacation not spent doing
a service project. I've found that these trips demonstrate through
action that there are people in the world who care, and also create
strong friendships among students who participate. Because SLO is
purposefully diverse, we talk about some issues--like classism and
interracial marriage--that are often ignored in day-to-day
relationships on campus." To gain some background on
hunger questions, the SLO group will meet March 13 with a
representative from Bread for the World, a grassroots advocacy
network, for a briefing on hunger issues that are currently before
Congress. Magovern anticipates that Senator Edward Kennedy's Hunger
Relief Act and Congressional legislation concerning debt relief for
the world's poorest countries will be under discussion. Students are
also preparing for the trip by discussing assigned readings and
reflecting on their diverse identities. In addition, half of the
Odyssey members joined Not Bread Alone, a soup kitchen in Amherst,
for a meal February 27. While at the kitchen, students assisted in
the meal's preparation and serving. SLO members will keep
journals and take photographs during their time in Washington and
plan to share their experience with the MHC community upon their
return. Applications for this year's trip were made available last
fall. The group met twice last semester and is meeting on a weekly
basis during this semester. 
(Left
to right) John Fox, visiting instructor in complex organizations,
Eissa Villasenor '02, Mari LaCure '02, Alessandra Folz '01, and Liddy
Gerchman '02 meet in preparation for the Washington service learning
trip.
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