Hopedale Native Natasha Iwanow Spending Spring Break Helping Those In Need

2014 Mar 7

Hopedale native Natasha Iwanow will be traveling to New Orleans the week of March 9th to take part in Stonehill College's annual H.O.P.E. Alternative Spring Break Program.

A member of the Class of 2016, Iwanow will be volunteering with other Stonehill students for the Saint Bernard Project, an award-winning rebuilding, nonprofit organization whose mission is to ensure that disaster-impacted communities in the greater New Orleans area recover in a prompt, efficient, and predictable way.

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.:

a??Honoring our neighbor

a??Organizing for justice

a??Practicing peace

a??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.

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.