Pointlife
Spotlight on Intercity Impact
The Pointer
hshee298@uwsp.edu
College presents its students with many options, opportunities and outlets. With so many options there is bound to be a comfortable fit for everyone, and even an uncomfortable fit for those who wish to leave their comfort zone and enhance their world and self view. Junior, Katrina Mijal, service trip coordinator of the Student Involvement and Employment Office and at University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, recommends just that and offers in return a life-changing experience.
From Nov. 6 through 8, a service trip called “Intercity Impact” will take UWSP student volunteers to Milwaukee. Here students will dive into the inner-city to provide help for those in need. Mijal stated that the hungry and the homeless will be those benefitting most from the volunteers weekend sacrifice.
Being the second year of the Milwaukee outreach program, the coordinators from SIEO and Multicultural Affairs have an experienced eye for what will happen. The non-profit organizations that they worked with last year are actually the main reason for returning. The Guest House of Milwaukee was the main organization the students aided by implementing a mailing project and showing a movie for
residents. Also students fed lunch to The Rescue Mission, a men’s shelter.
Alongside the outstanding partnerships that students are building in Milwaukee lie even more reasons why inner-city Milwaukee is the perfect fit for an annual weekend service project.
“This project is all about helping others, gaining experience, learning about the social issue of poverty and bringing it back to your own community to make a difference,” said Mijal.
Students receive training beforehand to prepare them for situations they may be placed in throughout the Milwaukee experience.
“It is close enough for just weekend travel and a city that is not too big but just big enough to be eye opening,” said Mijal. “They need help there and it is a good chance to bring back w
hat we learn in Milwaukee to Stevens Point because Stevens Point does have homelessness issues, too.”
After they return, the group always makes a point to reach out to their own community, with the hopes of helping local organizations like the Salvation Army or Operation Bootstrap.
The involvement doesn’t have to end there. SIEO promotes many service trips every year. Previously they have had trips for hurricane relief, in state parks, laboring at a camp for children with HIV or AIDS and in other locations where there is a need they can fill.
This year there is talk of leaving the Midwest and travelling to Moab, Utah, to do an environmentally based service project through the non-profit The Plateau Restoration.
Intercity Impact is accepting students through Friday Oct. 2. Students can contact Katrina Mijal or sign up through SIEO to participate. The cost of the program for UWSP students is $25.00. This cost includes all trainings, transportation, lodging and most meals. Participants are expected to attend training sessions before the service trip.
SIEO stresses the importance of getting involved and making a difference throughout your time at UWSP and this is on opportunity to do so.
