Mac Serve challenges students to get out of their comfort zones

Some of them went to expand on what they had already learned in the lecture hall.
Others went despite the fact that the work they would do had nothing to do with their
area of study. Some just wanted to help.

No matter the reason why, more than 80 McMaster students gave up the typical
Reading Week fare of beaches and relaxation in favour of building homes, getting an
up-close look at food security issues or working at a homeless shelter.

Called Mac Serve, McMaster's Reading Week service-learning trips have a twofold
purpose: they provide enthusiastic help to a multitude of organizations working for a
number of causes around the world, but they also help the students who take part to
develop a better understanding of global social issues.

“I've studied post-disaster reconstruction efforts, but taking part in them is really
something else,” said Drew Simon, who spent his Reading Week in New Orleans helping
to build two houses. “It really gave me new insights into my studies.”

Some picked up more tangible skills. Most of the students who traveled to New
Orleans, including Michelle Forrester, had never taken part in anything remotely
resembling housing construction.

“I think we all learned new skills,” said Michelle Forrester, who was also in New Orleans.
“Before the trip, I had never even held a hammer.”

For some, the challenge was less about learning new things and more about keeping
an open mind about where they were going and what they would do once there.

“Some wondered why I would go to New Orleans six years after Hurricane Katrina,” said
Duncan Boothby. “We assume that it's been long enough, that things have been cleaned
up, but that's really not the case. You really had to try to overcome your assumptions.”

Anthropology student Siobhan Stewart agrees. The Pickering, Ont. native spent her
Reading Week on a service-learning trip to downtown Hamilton, where students
volunteered in the not-for-profit sector. She says that in addition to learning how
social services function and collaborate to fight poverty in the city, the students were
challenged to get out of their comfort zones.

“By being out there in the real world, we saw what life is really like for a lot of people,”
said Stewart. “A theme that came up over and over in post-trip meetings was that
people aren't always what meets the eye.”

The Mac Serve trips are paid for by the students and organized by the Student Success
Centre's community service-learning, civic engagement and leadership office. This year
included trips to downtown Hamilton, to study poverty, Vancouver, to study food
security, Mexico, to study international development, and New Orleans, to study
disaster relief.