Thirty students from ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder will spend their summer vacation working in a Denver homeless shelter and helping revitalize a small fishing village in Mexico as part of the International and National Voluntary Service Training Program.
The INVST program is a two-year commitment combining community service with academic work and leadership training. Most students who are a part of the program are juniors or seniors.
First-year INVST participants will complete community service projects in New Mexico, Denver and Arizona. Second-year INVST participants will go to Texas and Mexico to learn more about cultural sensitivity, border issues and teamwork.
"We have designed the summer experiences so that students will learn about the complexity of community problems here and abroad," said Kevin King, INVST outreach coordinator. "They also develop a deeper understanding and compassion regarding multicultural issues and provide a useful service to the communities with which we work."
The summer INVST program for first-year students includes:
The "Wilderness Experience," from July 20-24, in which students and two alumni facilitators travel to Taos, N.M., to work with the Rocky Mountain Youth Corps and help revitalize areas recently damaged by fires.
The "Homeless Experience" will allow first-year INVST students the opportunity to live and work at the Samaritan House, a homeless shelter in Denver, from July 26-31. During the visit, students will stay as a group in the recreation room of the shelter.
The "Navajo Experience" begins with a two-day intensive workshop focusing on Native American land and cultural issues. Students then will embark on a two-week experience on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona from Aug. 2-16. Students will live and work with four families on the reservation.
The summer INVST program for second-year students includes:
A trip to El Paso, Texas, from July 20-29, where students will live and work with the Annunciation House, a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating problems of poverty on the border. Students also will be participating in seminars on NAFTA and building a stage for an upcoming theatre production for children.
INVST students also will travel with two alumni facilitators to Bahia Kino, Mexico, from July 30 to Aug. 15. Bahia Kino is a small fishing village where the students will be living and working with families as part of a non- profit organization called Familias Unidas.
Students will work on five projects with Familias Unidas including building several homes, painting a local kindergarten classroom, assisting the local social services with various projects, teaching English classes to local children and assisting local schools in setting up educational programming.
The mission of INVST is to develop well-informed citizens who are trained as leaders to analyze and solve community problems as a lifetime commitment.
ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥-Boulder implemented the first INVST program in 1990. St. Mary's College in California later adopted the program.
For more information about the INVST summer community service projects call the INVST office at (303) 492-8045.