HISTORY OF THE GUADALAJARA PROJECT

A professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies, Dr. Chris Bennett realized that many of her students were more inclined to do community service than they were to study abroad. So in the summer of 1998, funded with a grant from the then CND Faculty Development Committee, she traveled to Mexico to seek out a site for Study Abroad combined with Community Service. Of the five cities she visited, Guadalajara offered the best opportunity because that was where Sister of Notre Dame Janet Grim lived. Sr. Janet, having worked in Mexico for some ten years, volunteered for a parish priest, Dr. Ignacio Virgen, who was enthusiastic about having a group of students come and work in his parish. Fondly known as Fr. Nacho, he quickly warmed to the idea of CND students arriving the following summer.

In July 1999 the first group of students, faculty and staff, arrived in the hillside neighborhood of Cerro del Cuatro where Fr. Nacho had recently been transferred to the parish of Nuestra Señora del Refugio. Wanting to know who his parishioners were, he asked us to help with a parish census, and so we spent two weeks going door to door, filling out information forms on each family. Much to the surprise of the students, they found that they were using vocabulary that they had learned at the very beginning of Spanish 1 to ask all the standard questions of how many in the family, how many children, how old they were, etc. although understanding all the answers was more of a challenge. It was an eye opening glimpse into life in a very poor parish on the outskirts of a large, expanding city in Mexico.

Communication with their host families, all found and prepped by Sr. Janet, was not so easy for those just learning Spanish, but the overwhelming expressions of hospitality and love overcame most impediments to understanding. When we bade farewell at the end of two weeks, Fr. Nacho said he’d like us to return the following summer, but what would we do?  He and several parish families finally came up with the idea of our providing a summer camp for the children of the parish since there was nothing for them during the long, hot summer months. Our students readily responded to the challenge, and thus was born Campamento de Verano Refugio Summer Camp which opened its first session in July of 2000 in the multi-purpose hall attached to the parish church. The program was such a success that we were invited back for the following year 2001. That same year, Chris Bennett and her colleague, Dr. Deana Smalley, were awarded the Sister Catherine  Julie Cunningham Teaching Project award for the Guadalajara Community Service Learning Project.

September 11 put a real damper on international travel for the following two years, but in 2004 we were back, and the rest is history. We have been returning each summer ever since. In 2005 Sr. Janet transferred to the parish of San Ambrosio, and so we did too. Without Sr. Janet, our program would flounder because she is the one who seeks out our host families, works with them prior to our arrival, also works with the parish priest and preps our group on arrival; she also recruits the children for the camp and works throughout our stay to make sure all is running smoothly. In 2005, Chris Bennett realized that her duties as Dean were too demanding to allow her the necessary time for organizing the trip and preparing the students. To her delight, Dr. Bobby Vaughn, newly arrived anthropologist at NDNU, and an annual field researcher in Mexico, agreed to take over the project. At the same time, Ruth Victorino Zucca of the Spanish Program also expressed interest, and so she and Dr. Bobby formed the new and wonderful leadership team that we now have for the program.

• The NDNU Community Service Learning Project was iniated in 1997 when two staff from Campus Ministry and four students went to El Salvador.
  
• In 1998 a group of six provided two weeks of intense community seervice in the poorest areas of Baltimore, Maryland
• In 1999 eight students, two staff and two faculty members spent two weeks in Guadalajara in the parish of Nuestra Senora del Refugio, helping with a parish census taking, offering health classes, and visiting the sick.
• In 2000, two faculty members accompanied eight students to Guadalajara where they planned, organized and ran a two-week summer camp in the Parish of Nuestra Senora del Refugio for 180 children who normally have no access to summer activities and Campamento Refugio was born.
• In 2001, ten students and one faculty member repeated the Summer Camp Refugio and were invited to return.

The programs since 2001 have been so successful that the parish priest requested our return, and here we are now planning for our 2007 project. We proudly invite you, our NDNU community, to become a part of The Guadalajara Community Service Project through this website. Thank you.