Fairfield University and Fairfield Prep students to spend spring break helping in Hurricane Katrina region

March 8, 2007

Other students volunteer for Maine, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

Watch the News 12 Connecticut feature
Running time: 2 min., 17 sec.
(Clip courtesy of News 12 Connecticut)

Seven Fairfield University students and eight Fairfield Prep students will spend their spring break in New Orleans and Mississippi, helping and learning from the region still struggling to rebuild from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. They will arrive in New Orleans on March 9 to participate in a Jesuit-sponsored teach-in and then help with reconstruction efforts in New Orleans and Mississippi.

Claudia Nielsen, director of Parents' Giving, and Father Mark Scalese, S. J., assistant professor of new media, are taking the University students to the teach-in March 9-11 at Loyola University New Orleans. The teach-in will feature Jesuit officials, New Orleans community leaders, the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, and 500 students from Jesuit high schools and colleges around the country, such as Fordham University and Fordham Prep, St. Joseph's Prep and St. Joseph's University; Canisius College, Gonzaga High School and Georgetown Visitation Girls School.

From March 11-17, the University students will work at a Habitat for Humanity site in Mississippi and take part in various other community service projects throughout New Orleans. The University students include seniors Jill Nusio, East Northport, N.Y., Meghan Popick, Parkland, Fla.; juniors Meghan McIntosh, Canton, Mass., Nico Valaris, Southbury, Conn.; and sophomores Kristin Villanueva, Andover, Mass., Colleen Gibson, Hillsborough, N.J., and Jennifer DeBrincat, Tobyhanna, Penn.

The team of Fairfield Prep students consists of seniors Tom Connolly, Stamford, Scott Richter, Shelton, Thorn Lozier, Fairfield; juniors Mike Miles, Easton, Ken Jordan, Shelton, Tom Miglietta, Bethel, Robert LiCalzi, New Canaan; and sophomore Andrew Garvey, Fairfield.

Prep students will be attending the teach-in under the supervision of faculty members Chris Sadler and Thomas Sacerdote, director of Christian Service Programs, and Matt Pierson, who graduated from Fairfield Prep in 2001. After attending the teach-in they will work at Camp Restore in New Orleans March 12 and 13, which is a church that has been refurbished to house over 200 volunteers in dorm-style rooms. The Prep students will then travel back to Connecticut.

Other Fairfield University students will be spending their spring breaks working with Habitat for Humanity in Portland, Maine, and Greene County, Penn. Another group of students will work in adult day care centers, nursing homes, food pantries, and do construction work on low-income housing in Glenmary Farms, Ky. Other Fairfield students will work in The Christian Appalachian Project, where the goal is to meet the housing needs of low-income families.

Media Contact: Nancy Habetz,  (203) 254-4000, ext. 2726

#

Vol. 39, No. 173

Fairfield University is a comprehensive Jesuit university that prepares undergraduate, graduate and continuing education students for leadership and service in a constantly changing world. In its 2007 editions, U.S.News and World Report’s "America’s Best Colleges" ranks Fairfield fourth among universities with master’s programs in the North and The Princeton Review lists Fairfield among "The Best 361 Colleges." Approximately 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students from 34 states, 45 countries, and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico are enrolled in the University’s six schools. The University was founded in 1942 in the scenic shoreline community of Fairfield, Connecticut.