BC sophomores Brigid Wholey (left) and Audra Cimino help repot trees to replenish woodlands decimated by the California wildfires.
Taking Responsibility for Service
BC students’ trip to LA a growth experience, not a New Year’s vacation
By
When Boston College sophomores Audra Cimino and Brigid Wholey journeyed to Los Angeles during the first week of January, they found themselves among thousands flocking to the area for the annual Rose Bowl festivities. But Cimino and Wholey were there to lend support for a very different sort of team.The two were among 10 college students who helped communities in the Los Angeles area recover from its most recent spate of wildfires, which destroyed hundreds of homes, forced thousands of people forced to flee, and burned acres of woodlands.
Working as part of the Liberty Mutual Responsible Scholars Community Project — which offers service opportunities for undergraduates with excellent academic achievements — the team cleaned up a long-unused historic ranger station in Angeles National Forest’s San Gabriel Canyon that will now serve as a meeting site and home base for US Forest Service volunteers. Cimino and Wholey also helped repot more than 100 pine tree saplings that will be used to replenish the forest.
In addition, the Responsible Scholars volunteers assembled more than 450 food packages for homebound persons and worked at the LA Regional Food Bank.
For the BC students, the four-day experience was a chance to reach out to a community well beyond their familiarity, and to meet and work with peers who share their interest in service.
“I loved being able to spend time with people who seek to help others,” said Wholey, an accounting major from River Forest, Ill. “I really appreciated the challenge of going someplace where I’d never been, and seeing what I could do to lend a hand.”
Cimino, a Doylestown, Pa., native majoring in economics and Spanish, saw the project as a way to build on her academic pursuits.
“Having explored immigration-related issues in class, I liked the idea of being able to get some sense as to how those issues play out in real life, in the community.”
The two, who are residents in Williams Hall, heard about the program from their resident assistant Micaela Mabida, who had learned of it while interning last summer for Maura Quinn, a 2000 BC grad who is Liberty Mutual’s university relations program director. Having successfully navigated the application process — which included recording a video in which they described their interest and experience in service — Cimino and Wholey went out after New Year’s Day to join their fellow Responsible Scholars volunteers from the University of Georgia, Bryant University, Bowling Green State University and Kennesaw State University.
After the day’s service work, said Cimino and Wholey, the group would enjoy dinner and recreation in different parts of the city. They were also asked to write about their experiences and observations, for use in the blog on the program’s website www.responsiblescholars.com.
Of all the aspects of the project, Cimino and Wholey say perhaps the most fulfilling was the tree repotting. “It was very rewarding to know that the work we did in the mountains will one day help restore the areas devastated by the wildfires. Who knows, some day our grandchildren might come out and see the trees we helped plant.”