BY ELIZABETH EGAN, FEATURES ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
Photo Courtesy of Conor Amendola/Students participating in freshman service week pose for a picture at Mount Irenaeus
Strengthening the Bonnies community and creating a group of people willing to help others. This is what Sullivan Murphy, a freshman environmental studies major from West Seneca, New York, believed was accomplished in the inaugural freshman service week.
The Franciscan Center For Social Concern invited 14 freshmen to come to campus a week early to participate in service projects throughout the community. The FCSC hoped this program would encourage students to get involved with the FCSC and its various outreach programs. Freshman who participated said the program got them interested in community involvement while also helping them to get a head start on adjusting to college life and getting to know their peers.
Murphy, and Conor Amendola, a freshman media studies major from Erie, Pennsylvania, were two of the freshmen who elected to participate in the week.
“I think we did a lot for the community during that week,” Murphy said. “We helped people get into their home easier, we helped feed people.”
“Freshman service week allowed us to not only experience the community early on, but to step into a leadership role in the FCSC,” Amendola said.
The group took part in activities ranging from trips to the Warming House, St. Bonaventure University’s student-run soup kitchen, doing maintenance at Mt. Irenaeus and working with Bona Responds to build ramps around the Olean community.
Along with service work, another purpose the week served was allowing students to get a one-week head start on their first semester of college.
“The experience gave us a lot of motivation for the school year,” Murphy said. “Spending a week helping others through Bonaventure made me feel good about going into the school year.”
For Amendola, he valued the connections made during the week that have lasted with him through the semester.
“The day we went to the Warming House, I was partnered with another student and our only job was to bake cookies,” said Amendola. “Neither of us knew how to bake cookies.”
Amendola said the two of them ended up having a great time, bonding over the struggle of learning how to bake on the fly.
“We will still always say hi when we see eachother on campus,” Amendola said.
Along with introducing students to each other, the week also introduced students to different ways they could get involved on campus once the semester officially started.
Murphy and Sam Gil, a freshman computer science major who participated in the week of service, are now both employed as coordinators at the Warming House.
Amendola and a few of the other freshmen involved in the trip have become involved with Bona Responds, Bonaventure’s student relief agency. Jim Mahar, the faculty leader of Bona Responds, led the 14 freshmen in building wheelchair ramps for homes in the Olean area. The feeling of helping people be able to gain access to their homes with something as simple as building a ramp, inspired Amendola to stay involved with the club.
The FCSC plans to continue the tradition of inviting freshmen to campus a week early for a week of service.
To any incoming freshman considering coming to campus early next year, Murphy says, “Do it. You will have a great time, do great things and meet great people.”
