Fall River Native Julianne Earle Spending Spring Break Helping Others

2015 Mar 4

Fall River native Julianne Earle will be traveling to Syracuse next week during Stonehill College's spring break as apart of its H.O.P.E. Service Immersion Program.

In Syracuse, NY HOPE participants will be working with the L’Arche Community and therefore will encounter social justice issues pertaining to intellectual and developmental disabilities. L’Arche Syracuse is made up of four houses, each with four “core members” or people with disabilities. HOPE Syracuse spends time with the core members and assists the care takers in cooking and cleaning the four homes. Other services may be asked of the participants depending on the needs of the core members and care takers. Through these services, they will immerse themselves into the L’Arche community and learn about the social exclusion barriers faced by people with assorted disabilities/abilities.

Students who participate in the H.O.P.E. program form community with one another during the five months leading up to their trip. They learn about the culture, history and issues of social injustice in the communities they are destined to visit and serve.

The trips themselves are truly immersive experiences, challenging students to engage the four tenets of H.O.P.E.:

• Honoring our neighbor
• Organizing for justice
• Practicing peace
• Encountering God

Upon their return, students are encouraged to reflect on their experiences and to integrate the pursuit of social justice into their day-to-day lives.

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Stonehill is a selective Catholic college located near Boston on a beautiful 384-acre campus in Easton, Massachusetts. With a student-faculty ratio of 13:1, the College engages over 2,500 students in 80+ rigorous academic programs in the liberal arts, sciences, and pre-professional fields. The Stonehill community helps students to develop the knowledge, skills, and character to meet their professional goals and to live lives of purpose and integrity.