Wednesday, March 6th

Elisabeth Schiltz: Today was my favorite day thus far. We woke up, headed to breakfast at Rocky Creek Ranch and then were joined by students from the Life Skills class at Community School of Davidson (CSD), a local charter school. Many of these students struggle with intellectual disabilities, which can often inhibit their communication levels, but that did not stop our group from breaking down the boundaries and establishing genuine relationships while doing various service projects. 

Yesterday, when introducing ourselves, we had to choose if we were superhero, celebrity or sports people, and talk about our favorite person. This was of great benefit as it helped both us and the students from CSD establish quick connections that could grow over the next two days. Given my love for sports, I formed a connection with Ty, one of the quieter students.  While Ty kept to himself almost all of yesterday and for the first hour or so today, I finally broke down the wall and got him to play football along with his friend Alex. Watching both of the CSD students play football with us was pure joy. Anyone watching could tell that they were welcomed as a part of the group, acting like everyone else…shoving and pushing each other just the get the incoming pass. After the students left, they returned back to CSD and had a short reflection before school ended. The head teacher of the program asked them to write quick words of thanks to us during their reflection and he passed along the messages. Ty wrote: “Thanks for playing football with me”. While that message may not seem like a lot at first glance, knowing Ty it meant a lot.

After we wrapped up painting some inspirational quote signs, a horse jump, and floating dock house, we left Rocky Creek Ranch and headed to an Ash Wednesday service at a local Methodist Church. I entered the church with excitement full of curiosity but also a little fear. I have never been to a religious service that was not Catholic, since I could remember, minus a Bat Mitzvah service in middle school. Upon entering, I felt at peace, the female pastor welcomed us with open arms. While the church was very different than a Catholic Church with no alter or crucifix, I found many similarities despite the less structured environment of the service. Attending a non-Catholic service definitely challenged me to embrace the differences, but I ultimately enjoyed the service.

The rest of the week we will be spending our time at Rocky Creek Ranch, to complete more service projects and learn some of the operations of the farm. I am really looking forward to these experiences and growing closer as a group!

Kerry Miller: Today was another beautiful, productive, enlightening, and rewarding day. After an early wake-up call, we arrived at Rocky Creek and were served breakfast to kick off our day of doing service projects with students from the Community School of Davidson’s Life Skills class. Everyone got involved in gardening, painting, and helping do chores around the property. The best part of today was watching the CSD students have fun and work cohesively alongside us. We also were able to witness the Ferrier clean up the horse’s hooves and learned a lot about what goes into caring for each of the horses. Once we cleaned up, we headed to Ash Wednesday Service and had a fabulous dinner at a local Italian restaurant after.

I personally have gotten so much out of each day on this trip through all the interactions and experiences we’ve had. Everything we do we put into perspective of our lives as Villanova students and how we can make a greater impact in our campus community and the world around us. Just the little things like the CSD students expressing their appreciation of us spending our time with them or seeing our service projects come together truly make this a worthwhile experience. I’ve learned a lot about everyone on this trip through working together and engaging in our daily reflections. Everyone is so happy, thoughtful, and motivated each day to make some impact on each other and the people we get the privilege to work with down here in North Carolina. I can’t think of a better way to spend my spring break, and I am so very grateful for this opportunity. I am very excited for the rest of the week and getting to know everyone and myself more.