No Beaches for this Bunch
Jamaica, Miami, South Padre Island, and Puerto Vallarta are among the Travel Channel’s Top 12 spring break destinations for college students this year.
A destination notably missing is Washington, D.C., probably due to its lack of palm trees and white sand beaches.
But a dozen Keuka College students, who chose to swap suntans for shovels, will travel to the nation’s capital April 1-6 to spend spring break helping those in need. The students, along with Eric Detar, College chaplain, and Tim White, resident director for Blyley and Harrington Halls and a retention counselor, are participating in Keuka College’s annual Alternative Spring Break.
The Keuka team will work with the Center for Student Missions (CSM), which provides urban missions and service experiences for youth, adult, and family groups.
While working in Washington, the Keuka students will prepare and serve breakfast and lunch to the homeless, assist with an after-school program for elementary school children, help with the construction and renovation of a church, and assist at a senior center day care program.
“Right now, we just know each other by name and maybe a couple of other things,” said Detar. “The students who choose to take Alternative Spring Break trips will have a unique shared group experience that no one else will have. By the end of this trip, each of us will be much more than just a face around campus.”
Courtney Ray, a junior social work major from Cato, believes the trip will be an eye-opening experience.
“As a social work major, I anticipate working with the kind of people I will work with in my career,” she said.
Kaysie Burnett, a junior education major from Shortsville, wanted to go on the Alternative Spring Break “because I have never been to Washington, D.C., and thought a service trip would be a good way to spend spring break.”
And while participating in a mission trip may be new to Burnett, helping others is in Nina Fusco’s blood. The freshman occupational science major has been practicing social responsibility through her church since she was 13. But since her church closed several months ago, the Mechanicsville resident has been looking for a service project. So, when she heard about the Alternative Spring Break trip, Fusco jumped at the chance.
“Participating in this trip lets me continue doing something I love to do, and I am looking forward to going,” said Fusco.
So are Penn Yan resident Alicia Parkhurst, who is pursuing her master’s degree in education, and junior Francesca Spina.
Two years ago, Spina, an adolescent social studies major, worked with nine other students at Franciscans for the Poor in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the 2011 edition of Alternative Spring Break.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and it changed my perspective on my life,” said the Rochester resident. “It made me realize how blessed I am and how much I can give to others in need. That is way I want to go to Washington and help again.”
After the students have performed the day’s work, they will have an opportunity for reflection at the Douglas Memorial Methodist Church, and enjoy dinners at ethnic restaurants. Also planned are visits to the National Mall, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
White expects the Keuka group to be impacted by what they see and do while in Washington.
“The work we will do has been going on for a long time, and will continue after we leave,” said White. “We will get a snapshot of what people do every day to help those who need it most. What we get from this trip will be far more that what we give.”
Other students participating in Alternative Spring Break include: Robby Magee, a senior adolescent social studies/special education major from Fairport; Megan Russo, a freshman psychology major from Ceaderville, N.J.; Mattie Waldstein, a senior education studies major from Needham, Mass.; Patricia Wallace, a junior occupational science major from Bath; Lindsay Holmes, a junior occupational science major from West Henrietta; Sean Boutin, a sophomore criminology/criminal justice major from Purling; and Niki Chase, a junior social work major from Oneonta.
Mindful Meditation Makes Debut
Meditating in silence with palms facing upward and eyes closed would seem a practice reserved for monks.
Nicole Hunt
And while Keuka College has played host to the Venerable Lama Tenzin Yignyen, an ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk, meditation can also fit into the lives of Keuka students, faculty and staff.
So says Nicole Hunt, mindfulness meditation instructor, who will begin weekly meditation sessions Tuesday, Feb. 12. The program is cosponsored by the Center for Spiritual Life (CSL) and Academic Success at Keuka (ASK).
Hunt wanted to bring meditation to the College to show students how to focus their attention.
“You have the power to choose where you want your attention to go and sometimes we don’t understand that,” explained Hunt, who also teaches tai chi classes at the College. “I want to show the College community how to focus its attention on the positive things in their lives and not so much on the negative things. I want to teach the community to respond more and react less.”
Mindful meditation is a research-based form of meditation derived from a 2,500-year-old Buddhist practice. A secular technique for enhancing positive life skills, mindful meditation has been shown to reduce stress, develop balance and prioritization, and increase the effectiveness of interpersonal and intrapersonal activities, among other benefits.
College Chaplain Rev. Eric Detar says the CSL is interested in the success of students in their academic, spiritual, and personal lives.
“Meditation has been growing in popularity across campuses nationwide, and by offering meditation at Keuka, we have another opportunity to help students succeed,” he said.
And that is music to the ears of Jeffrey Carter, academic skills counselor for ASK and an adjunct instructor in the Accelerated Studies for Adults Program (ASAP).
“The primary focus of ASK is retention through academic support, and we see meditation as another retention tool for our students,” said Carter. “Meditation sessions at Keuka are needed because students experience stress and can have scattered thoughts. Meditation can help reduce these while developing more positive life skills.”
Hunt agrees.
“I have always had a deep interest in understanding the mind-body connection,” said Hunt. “Through meditation, we learn to quiet the cognitive mind and awaken our feeling-awareness for the present moment. It is here that intuition and embodied learning can take place.”
Detar says the College is “fortunate to have Nicole,” while Carter hopes the skills Hunt will teach “are such that students can expect a greater focus in their lives, which may translate into better grades.”
“We hope that if a student runs into a conflict with a roommate, the meditation sessions they attended will remind them to stop for a minute, collect their thoughts, and proceed to resolve the conflict,” said Detar. “Meditation can also be useful for those who may have test anxiety and let them breathe, focus, and maybe have a more productive test time.”
Hunt has been practicing movement-based meditation techniques, including tai chi, qigong, and yoga, for more than 10 years, and is in her fourth year teaching mindfulness-based movement techniques at Finger Lakes Community College.
Meditation sessions will be held every Tuesday at 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Norton Chapel meditation room.
For more information, contact Hunt at nhunt@keuka.edu.
Food for Thought
At his Growing Power farm in Milwaukee, Wisc., urban farmer and activist Will Allen has turned three acres of industrial wasteland into a mecca of nutrition for his neighborhood.
Will Allen
Allen, who received the MacArthur Genius Award in 2008, is one of the innovators featured in Fresh, a film that will be screened at Keuka College Friday, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. in Hegeman Hall, room 109.
Part of the Center for Spiritual Life’s (CSL), Faith and the Silver Screen series, Fresh focuses on the rising movement of people and communities across America who are re-inventing our food system. The movie showcases the food architects who offer a practical vision of a new food paradigm by planting urban gardens, creating composts from food waste, buying locally-grown products, and preserving seasonal produce to eat later in the year.
In addition to Allen, the film profiles sustainable farmer and entrepreneur Joel Salatin and supermarket owner David Ball. In Kansas City, Ball has revitalized his community by stocking his stores with produce from a cooperative of local farmers. At Salatin’s farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, the movie traces his methods for closing the nutrient cycle, and allowing cows, chickens, pigs and natural grasses to flourish without chemical fertilizers or industrial animal feed.
After the screening, a discussion about the spiritual and life application themes prevalent within the movie will be held.
Admission is free for members of the Keuka College community; a $2 donation is suggested for the general public.
What’s New: Traditional Undergrad
Chris Cahill plans to graduate from Keuka College in four years use and use his marketing degree to kick-start his career as a singer-songwriter.
And he doesn’t plan to let his disability get in the way.
Cahill has Tourette Syndrome, a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive involuntary movements and vocalizations. According to the National Institutes of Health, Tourette Syndrome tics can range from simple anomalies such as repeat blinking, shrugging, grimacing or throat-clearing, to more complex movements or sounds that could include parroted words, phrases or even profanities.
Despite the social trauma this disease can cause, Cahill has been no shrinking violet when it comes to discussing his Tourette Syndrome with fellow students and professors.
“I have talked to all of my professors and a good majority [of my classmates] about it,” he said. (more…)
Commemoration: Invoking Dr. King’s Spirit
It’s a tragedy that so many of today’s commemorations honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader, have become tame, stately memorials.
So says Rev. James Miller, an emeritus member of the Keuka College Board of Trustees, who will speak at a 7 p.m. ceremony honoring Dr. King, Tuesday, April 5 at Norton Chapel. April 4 is the 43rd anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.
“The meetings, assemblies, and gatherings that Dr. King always led gave us marching orders,” said Rev. Miller, whose professional service as a Baptist minister started in that era. “We’re into memorial services today, and that’s a tragedy, because that’s not the best [way of] honoring Dr. King’s legacy. We’ve got to continue [carrying out] the marching orders.”
King delivered the baccalaureate address at Keuka College in June 1963.
(more…)
Skip the Suntan, Serve Soup Instead
Last year's team served with Bethel Bible Church in Hixson, Tenn.
Ten Keuka students and two staffers will get an up-close-and-personal view of life in the trenches for those serving the homeless population of downtown Cincinnati during their Alternative Spring Break, March 27 – April 1.
According to statistics from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, 1,300 – 1,500 people are homeless each night in Cincinnati. Striving to meet their needs, along with Franciscan monks and others will provide students a very different perspective from the stereotypical sun-and-fun spring break vacation. Alternative Spring Break has become something of a tradition for students here, who made service trips in prior years to locales including Hixson, Tenn. , Boston, Mass. and multiple Florida cities to tackle landscaping, painting, simple construction projects, and more.
The Keuka team will be hosted this year at Tau Community House by Franciscans for the Poor, where simplicity, communal living and service – exemplified by monks in the Franciscan order – form the thread of daily life. After serving in city soup kitchens, shelters, on simple construction projects and elsewhere as needed each day, the students will hear firsthand accounts each night from men and women battling homelessness and those working with them.
Tour of Israel Captivates Cohen
Brandon Cohen can now say he has literally followed in his father’s footsteps.
Years ago, Cohen’s father celebrated his bar mitzvah with a visit to the Wailing Wall, or Western Wall, in Jerusalem, a remnant of the Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. The elder Cohen placed a letter to God among the cracks, and in January, his son did the same thing, while on a tour of Israel with other Jewish college students through the Birthright Kesher organization.
To Brandon Cohen, a Keuka sophomore and Marlboro, N.J. resident, that moment was a powerful one.
College ‘Adopts’ Fort Drum Platoons
Keuka College has “adopted” two platoons from Fort Drum’s (Jefferson County) 10th Mountain Division.
Both platoons— the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade (CAB) S-3 and one from the Division of Public Affairs—are being deployed to Afghanistan this month.
“’Adoption’ means offering support to our troops while they are serving overseas,” said College Chaplain Eric Detar of this project, a joint effort of the Center for Spiritual Life (CSL) and Rotaract Club. “As a campus, we will send care packages, letters, and will be there for the soldiers when they return. ‘Adoption’ also means praying for, and remembering, the troops and their families while their loved ones are away.”
College Raised More than $4,000 for Haitian Relief
In February, Keuka College’s Center for Spiritual Life (CSL) began collecting donations to assist the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.
“We chose to raise funds for an organization called ShelterBox,” said College Chaplain Rev. Eric Detar.
College Honors Victims of Holocaust
The College took time today (Friday, April 9) to honor victims of the Holocaust.
The Center for Spiritual Life and Office of Multicultural Affairs sponsored a Holocaust Remembrance Service during the noon hour near the World War II memorial.
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