Upon hearing about the current report in the National Service News about the
work that some students had done at the Navajo Indians I thought I might
share what we are currently doing.
We are sponsoring a trip to Fort Apache with 8 students to visit the Apache
Reservation in Arizona. The students will be working at the Apache Cultural
Center helping to rebuild some Indian dwellings and will also be helping the
US Forest Service with some work on the reservation as well.
The learning part of the service has taken the form of reading some
background of the Apache by reading a book by Michael Melody entitled "The
Apache", which is published by Chelsea House Publishers (they also have books
on at least 50 different tribes).
We also hope to make some connections on the reservation so we can attend
some Apache ceremonies. In June we took the students to the Annual Pow Wow at
Stanford University so they could begin to get a "feel" for Indian
ceremonies.
The learning portion on the trip itself will consist of daily evening
meditations on Indian views of the world and their sense of spirituality (not
that you can separate the two). The students will be keeping a journal and
will be given time to write reflections each day.
This trip takes place July 29- August 6. The follow-up will consist of a get
together in September to share slides and video with the students and their
parents.
Each student is awarded a Community Service Block, comparable to an athletic
block, at this time. We do this for all 6 of our various immersion programs.
We currently have trips that visit Appalachia, Oaxaca in Southern Mexico, and
Tijuana, Mexico. We are working on implementing trips to El Salvador and
Guatemala as well.
Our El Salvador Program will be unique in that the students who will be going
to El Salvador will be those enrolled in a combined Spanish/Religion class.
The same teacher will be teaching this course and taking the students on the
trip next summer. This trip will be subsidized in part by the school.
Steve Herrera
Archbishop Mitty High School
San Jose, Calif.