The ‘irie’ thing to do
Monroe students pass on spring break for humanitarian trip to Jamaica
A GROUP of Bronx college students are forgoing a traditional spring break to embark on a humanitarian aid trip to the island of Jamaica.
This weekend, 10 Monroe College students will bring medical care, health education and supplies to vulnerable young people living in a community on the outskirts of Montego Bay.
The Mustard Seed Community houses kids and young adults with HIV, pregnant teens and their babies, and the disabled. The students, with majors including pharmacy tech, criminal justice, nursing and public health, will spend a week administering medical screenings, and will help out with chores like milking cows and feeding chickens.
“This spring break, I was supposed to go to Puerto Rico,” said medical assisting student Symone Griffin, 20. “But when I found out what we were going to be doing, I thought, ‘Why go to spring break, when I could help other people?’”
It will be public health major Sabrina Smith’s second humanitarian trip with the school. The 20-year-old from Brownsville helped treat the sick who live on the outskirts of Santo Domingo, where the elderly and very young were ravaged by parasites and cholera.
“To actually see a person in that type of health. . .it pulls on your heartstrings,” Smith recalled. “We basically triaged, diagnosed and medicated.”
Jerry Kostroff, dean of Monroe College’s School of Allied Health Professions, said the mission trip is part of the school’s goal of immersing students in the real world.
“They can see it in the classroom,” Kostroff said, “but now, they’ll see it in real life.”
Students were chosen based on their grades, professor recommendations, a personal essay and an interview, according to school officials. The students said they also had to pay $500 towards the cost of the trip.
Samantha Vega, 25, a criminal justice major from Morrisania, said the trip would mark her first time on a plane.
“It’s a very new experience, and I’m happy that the first stamp on my passport will be something meaningful,” she said.
Samantha Alvarado, 28, a registered nursing student from Bogota, NJ,, is bringing supplies like diapers, baby wipes, coloring books and crayons for the Mustard Seed residents. Alvarado said she didn’t mind that she wouldn’t have time off for spring break this year.
“Everyone needs a break,” she said, “but what we gain from this is so much more.”