In the Community

A SPRING DAY WITH SENIORS
Early rising students spent their morning preparing spring baskets with flower seeds, plant pots and fun trinkets for the elderly residents of the Action for Boston Community Development, Inc. (ABCD), a neighborhood center that provides housing for low-income seniors. Another group of students delivered the baskets and hand-made cards to ABCD at the “Villa Michelangelo” in Boston’s North End, staying to chat and share stories with the residents.

FIGHTING HUNGER WITH “Best Buddies”
Suffolk students grabbed their Best Buddies and visited the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) in South Boston. The Best Buddies program provides one-to-one friendship opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities. Students and their buddies spent their day in the GBFB warehouse taking in shipments and preparing food to be sent throughout New England.

DESIGN FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
New England School of Art & Design students in Professor Karen Clarke’s Sustainable Design for Interiors course hosted “Design for the Environment,” a green/sustainable design trade show in the atrium of 10 St. James Avenue. The trade show educated visitors about green design—maximizing the efficiency of energy and water systems, using recycled materials in construction, and minimizing the environmental impact of construction and operation. (see story pg. 10)

SPRING CLEANING ON THE ESPLANADE
Down by the banks of the River Charles, Suffolk University students got their hands dirty in an effort to clean up the Esplanade in time for spring. Their time was spent raking leaves, cleaning up trash, and beautifying one of Boston’s most famous locations.

More images available on these pages of the digital edition.

Journey: Learning Beyond the Classroom in El Salvador

It’s hard to wrap your brain around El Salvador.

Even Lonely Planet, which has built an empire writing guides to less traveled roads, seems unsure what direction to take with this country. “Falcons and hawks fill the skies above fabulous food festivals and bomb craters,” the online guide states with awkward cheer. “Friendly locals like to chat, diverting your gaze from the gangs and refugees to beautiful broad valleys.”

On the way to work the last day in El Sitio. Pictured clockwise from left: Franciso Peguero, Jeff Pomponi (hidden), Luis Castillo, Yanitza Medina, Megan Cullen, Dean Grubb, Derek Lomba, Kaitlyn Winegardner, Valerie Gonzalez-Crisci.

Suffolk junior Jeff Pomponi wasn’t quite sure why he decided to go to El Salvador for S.O.U.L.S. Alternative Winter Break. “I just wanted to go somewhere different because I knew over the winter break there wouldn’t be anything to do, and I wanted a change,” he says. “Once I got to El Salvador, I realized I’m supposed to do this …. I had a reason to be there that I didn’t know going in.”

Inspired by a legacy

Over the first two weeks of 2008, Pomponi is one of a dozen Suffolk students and five faculty and staff members living and working in El Sitio, a poor rural town in El Salvador’s mountainous north, trading time at home between semesters for a service learning project far away. Their primary assignment is to complete construction of the Concha Acoustica (acoustic shell), an outdoor stage and arena for community gatherings, before El Sitio’s annual Festival for Peace and Social Justice. Read more