On Monday, April 1, the Office of Student Leadership and Community Engagement began the month with their BVS Bash. Within the Alumni Lounge on the second floor of the Campus Center, the event showcased poster boards displaying collages of the students’ trips, heralding an upcoming one in the summer. Beacon Voyages for Service is one of the many programs under the umbrella of OSLCE. The program operates as an “Alternative Break” program where students can become engaged in service through a week-long trip. [1]
BVS Bash serves as the culmination of these “alternative breaks” where participants of the program are allowed to share their experiences, reflect on what they learned and potentially interest other UMass Boston students to the benefits of being part of the change created by the BVS program. The trips presented at the event each had a different objective and destination. Three locations—Culebra, Puerto Rico, Acadia National Park and San Francisco, California—were the starting points for these three teams.
The event kicked off at 12 p.m. with Assistant Director of OSLCE Lizzy Cantor stating that “this group has been meeting since October,” illustrating the commitment of the student participants, which was followed by a reflection on the two trips to San Francisco and Acadia National Park.
The first presentation, delivered by the San Francisco group centering around the Filipino-American experience and led by trip leader Fasha Banson, displayed the learning experiences of the students.
The group took the crowd through the journey of their trip. From the first day to the last, the audience was visually brought to historical locations with significant meaning. This included their visit to the International Hotel, as well as the participant’s spontaneous meet up with the group United Playaz, which is a youth organization that focuses on violence prevention and youth development. Banson described it as “magical things that happened that week.”
“I have never experienced an ethnic studies class,” said Cristian Orellana, a participant of the trip, when discussing the group’s visit to San Francisco State University. “It was impactful.”
This was a sentiment repeated by other trip participants, arriving at similar conclusions with statements that the trip offered moments that were “incredibly emotional and powerful,” as stated by Aly Dusaban when discussing the International Hotel or I-Hotel.
Following the first group was the trip to Acadia National Park led by Neeti Shah, which focused on Environmental Preservation. The participants highlighted the preparation of their trip within UMass Boston and the service work they were able to engage in throughout the visit. The group discussed the variety of tasks they participated in throughout the presentation, ranging from creating paper mâché costumes for the park’s events to exploring tide pools and discovering sea urchins, dog welts, crabs and shrimps.
“It was extremely interesting and extremely educational, ” said Kayla Bradley when discussing the group’s foray into tide pooling. As the group concluded, the participants’ final slide displayed the team’s activities, service work and adventures through a colorful video that showed how closely the group bonded through their trip.
The event concluded with the presentation of the last trip that has yet to happen. Didi Davila, the leader of the trip on the effects of colonization and gentrification, discussed the group’s upcoming visit to Culebra, Puerto Rico.
Davila started off by stating that “Puerto Rico is not just sunshine and rainbows,” as she briefly delved into the contentious history of the island from its military invasions to its Spanish colonization and how its culture has formed around that reality. Davila even brought in her experience with BVS as a participant instead of a trip leader, describing her trip to Ecuador last year as “truly life changing.”
The final group plans to work with the organization “Kids 4 Green,” a program that focuses on organizing and promoting healthy alternatives so that the youth of Culebra may acquire tools for the proper management of their behaviors, academic achievement and healthy coexistence. [3] The group hopes that this will lead to the eventual creation of a Kids 4 Green club at UMass Boston. Davila ended the group’s presentation by encouraging people to give Kids 4 Green a follow on Instagram and inviting the audience to create cards for the children they hope to work with.
Any students interested in funding or supporting the group’s remaining trip to Culebra are encouraged to check out UMass Boston’s site on the BVS trip to make direct donations. [4]
Sources:
[1] Beacon Voyages For Service – UMass Boston (umb.edu)
[2] https://www.alumni.umb.edu/s/1355/campaign/index.aspx?sid=1355&gid=3&pgid=11202
[3] https://www.kids4greenculebra.org
[4] UMass Boston Alumni Online Community – BVS: Puerto Rico (umb.edu)