Service TREK connects students with community

New students backpacking on the Long Trail or kayaking Lake Champlain are the first images that come to mind when the subject is UVM TREK. While the immersive week-long student orientation program has its roots in the wilds of Vermont, UVM Service TREK has carved out its own distinct path and place in the university’s culture across almost 20 years.

Service TREK 2015 included six groups that fanned out around Greater Burlington and beyond to help students launch their college years positively, getting to know their classmates and making an impact on the local community. Students worked with animal rescue groups, social support agencies, and local food banks, among other organizations.

Last Tuesday morning we caught up with eight new students and their two upperclassmen student leaders at a Habitat for Humanity building site at Farrington Village, a new affordable housing community at the north edge of Shelburne. While the table saw buzzed, nail guns thumped, and rain poured outside the roughed-in house frame, students shared their thoughts on what drew them to TREK and what they hoped to draw from the week.

Service TREK

Julianne Mariner of Marion, Massachusetts, is a veteran of service trips during her high school years. Loving the camaraderie found in those experiences, she sought the same as she transitioned to college. Looking across the room where Habitat site manager Mike Welch offers gentle guidance on the nuances of building a roof bracket, Mariner says, “We have a great group.”

Ani Harlan of Sudbury, Massachusetts, another vet of community service trips, traveled to Armenia with a church youth group where she built strong friendships and noted how working was key to drawing the team closer. “The collaboration builds a strong group dynamic,” she says. “Doing something like this, where you can physically see the change that’s happening, inspires me to do more.”

Service TREK

Brenna Foley, an Honors College student majoring in global studies, says the ethic behind Service TREK is one of the key elements that drew her to UVM more broadly. “There was this feeling on campus that working together is valued at UVM,” she says. She plans to get involved in service and human rights work during her years at the university.

One of the beauties of TREK is that the trips are led by seasoned UVM students, many of them past first-year TREKKIES themselves, able to share firsthand experience of getting comfortable with college life. The Habitat crew says that the evening conversations, camped out on the floor of the Charlotte Congregational Church a few miles south, are wide-ranging.

Becca Potter and Foram Patel, both from southern Vermont, lead the building team in Shelburne. Patel, a psychology/pre-med major, says her own struggles during her first year at UVM motivated her to help others make a smoother transition. Potter, an English major who has been deeply involved with community service throughout her time at UVM, says she’s motivated by the moral call to service, but also by the communities she finds there — “The most meaningful friendships I’ve made at UVM have been through doing work like this.”

PUBLISHED

08-26-2015
Thomas James Weaver