Memory Bandera '04 (top) gives direction to a young artist. The two were participating in the College's third annual Service and Leadership Odyssey.

Rather than heading off in search of blue water and golden sand, a dozen MHC students and their advisers spent the spring break helping a group of Springfield, Massachusetts, schoolchildren create their own colorful visions of paradise.
On two walls of the cafeteria of the Brightwood Elementary School are the fruits of their week of labor, murals of the pupils' own design brought to life with the MHC students' help. But just as real, if not as tangible, are the connections the college students made with each other and with the pupils.

“It's really wonderful to work with the kids,” said Ashley Gagne '04, one of the twelve student participants in the College's third annual Service and Leadership Odyssey. “It's a lot more community building than I thought it would be. I'm enjoying that aspect of it.”

The idea behind the Odyssey is to give students an opportunity to serve a community while forging connections with fellow participants of diverse backgrounds. Students last year worked in soup kitchens in Washington, D.C., and in 1999 helped rebuild a church in Birmingham, Alabama, that had been destroyed by arson.

“We want to be in service to the community. We want to really be in the community, to be with the kids, to build a connection to the kids,” said Rochelle Calhoun, associate dean of the College. She and Anita Magovern, chaplain to the College, are the group's advisers. To prepare for the project, the students met periodically through the past several months and received guidance from Anthony W. Lee, assistant professor of art at the College and author of Painting on the Left, a book on the murals of Diego Rivera.

Ashley Gagne '04 at work with fourth-grade student Joshua McRae.

The pupils, fourth- through seventh-graders, were in charge of making the decisions. After making proposals and taking votes, they settled on two themes: Food Town, where the landscape is made of milk cartons, broccoli stalks, and candy bars; and a solar system, where every student created his or her own ideal planet. Students worked one-on-one with the pupils as the work progressed.

Rochelle Calhoun (far left), associate dean of the College, looks on as Springfield schoolchildren and MHC students work on a mural together.

“They have amazing ideas,” said Carolyn Matsumoto '03, as her partner, seventh-grader Lily Valentin, decorated the pink fairy castle on her planet. “It's a nice way to connect with the community. There's such a high energy level.” The experience of working with the pupils “tends to put things in perspective,” Matsumoto said. “We find ourselves worrying about a lot of little things, but they just want to have fun.” From the pupils' perspective, the opportunity to get to know college students was revealing, as well. “I thought they were all going to be boring, because they study all the time,” said seventh-grader Jennifer Diaz. “But they're not. They're fun.”

Teddy Sylvester, director of the North End Community Center, which is connected to the school, said the pupils have taken pride in their work. “It's done a lot for the self-esteem of all of our students. This has really given them something to shine at,” she said. As important as the connection to the pupils are the bonds that have formed among the group of students, selected to be a diverse group. Throughout the week the students shared a house, made available by Elizabeth Braun, the College's director of residential life. There, they took turns cooking for each other and learning more about one another. “We have had the most delicious meals,” said Magovern, recalling a Zimbabwean cornmeal, spinach, and peanut sauce dish made by Memory Bandera '04.

Marika Garcia '03 with a new friend.

Long before the week had ended, the pupils “were asking us when we're going to come back,” Gagne said. Instead, the College plans to invite the pupils to the campus, to celebrate the completion of the mural. For many, it may be their first visit to a college campus—and the seed of an idea for their own futures.

In addition to Bandera, Gagne, and Matsumoto, Mount Holyoke College students taking part in the project were Sarah Cutler '03, Yasmin Davis '02, Marika Garcia '03, Judy Kim '04, Linda Morin '01, Claire Salier-Hellendag '04, and Laura Waddey '03.