Appa Volunteers — more commonly called “Appa” — is a service-immersion program committed to working with under-resourced populations in the United States via shared service and direct encounter. The heart of our work is spent in community, when we travel to 30 different cities and towns during spring break, living in solidarity alongside the families that we commit to serve.

Register for Appa

Contact

appalachia@bc.edu

Campus Minister
Jake Blicharz
jacob.blicharz@bc.edu
617-552-3230

Graduate Assistant
Jorge Sanchez
jorge.sanchez.3@bc.edu

The Appa Volunteers Experience

Appa Volunteers is an alternative spring break service-immersion program committed to working alongside underserved populations in the United States. More than 400 students travel coast-to-coast with us each year, encountering community and service in both urban areas (New Orleans, Detroit, etc.) and rural areas (throughout the South and the Appalachian regions).

We meet biweekly throughout the school year to learn about the structural and social realities that leave some people marginalized, and we draw on Boston College’s Jesuit tradition in considering how faith might ask us to respond to social injustices.

What We Do

Learn, through discussion and reflection, about the societal realities in the United States that leave some marginalized.

Consider how our faith asks us to respond to the social injustices that create entrenched poverty.

Foster a commitment to service throughout the year.

Embrace the Gospel’s call to “love one another.”

How to join

Joining Appa is as easy as showing up. We have no application process. Any student who wants to participate can. We simply ask that you complete our registration form and commit to the following requirements:

Terms & Conditions: All students participating in Appa must submit basic registration information and the program’s terms and conditions form online.

Participation and Attendance

General Formation Meetings: See timeline below

Meeting Attendance: Attendance at meetings is mandatory. Members who cannot make a meeting should e-mail appalachia@bc.edu ahead of time to alert them of their absence. Continued unexcused absences may result in dismissal from the program.

Finances & fundraising

Program Fee: There is a $100 program fee for Appa.

Raffle: Students are responsible for selling and submitting at least $200 worth of raffle tickets by January 26, 2025. Raffle information will be shared at our general meeting on Sunday, December 8, 2024. 

You can submit raffle payment via cash, check (payable to Boston College), or credit card. To pay via credit card:

  1. Visit bc.edu/ummstpm
  2. Log in with BC username and password via Sign in to My Account button in the upper right hand corner
  3. Under the list of UMM Programs You Have Been Accepted Into, click the red Make Payment button on the Appa Volunteers line
  4. Enter the amount you would like to pay in the respective Payment Amount field and click Make Payment
  5. You will be redirected to the secure CashNet page where you can submit your payment information. You will receive an email confirming your successful payment.

Become a leader

Appa Volunteers is animated by the work of 56 Student Leaders (SLs) in all facets of the program.

The following leadership positions are available: 

  • Appa Leaders are extensively trained on servant leadership and service immersion practices. Appa SLs are assigned in pairs or triplets to each site, and commit to facilitate respectful, safe, and meaningful experiences for participants and community partners.

  • Appa Council Members are 12 SLs that serve as the program’s executive leadership team. They work collectively to plan and execute fundraising initiatives, formation planning and trip logistics. 

  • Appa Head Coordinators are two students who serve as “leaders of leaders” in Appa’s community of Student Leaders and participants. They work closely with the Appa Campus Minister and Graduate Assistant and dedicate their time overseeing all Appa Council committees and much of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into Appa. 


Applications for leadership positions in the 2025 - 2026 academic year will be available in March 2025. 

History of Appa

Boston College was one of the first universities to sponsor an alternative spring break trip when Gregg Cassin, BC ’80, and 19 classmates traveled to Vanceburg, Kentucky in February 1979 for an eight-day trip centered on the tenets of service and solidarity.

“We’re out to raise the awareness of BC students in terms of the people of Appalachia,” Cassin told The Heights at the time. “People can’t conceive of third world conditions existing in our own country.”

The BC students lived simply that week, working to repair homes and farms while building relationships with the community and growing personally in emotional and spiritual ways. Their time together, Cassin told The Heights, brought to life “what Christ meant when he said, ‘Whatever you do to the last of mine, let you do unto me.'”

The Appa Volunteers program has grown substantially since then. The group nearly doubled in size in its second year, with 34 students traveling to Kentucky and Ohio in 1980 to experience poverty in the United States. Some 20 years later, in 2000, 460 students raised almost $150,000 to support a program that had grown to spread from the borders of Maine to North Carolina. 

Today, Boston College’s Appa program celebrates more than 35 years of service and solidarity with and for the poor of the United States. Students annually raise more than $300,000 necessary to travel around the country, building homes, building community, and learning how to live just lives.

Learn more about the beginnings of Appa Volunteers from an article in The Heights from 1979.

Read article

Donate

Students participating in Appa.

Thank you for considering a donation to the Appa Volunteers. Your tax-deductible donation is a valuable investment in a learning experience that many Boston College students will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Donate Online

  • Visit the online giving form by clicking the button below.
  • Enter your information; for the field "I wish to make my gift to:” select Appa Volunteers. If you are sponsoring a certain student, please select "In honor of a BC student," and include their name and year.
  • Click "Submit Gift"

Online giving form

Mail a Check

Appa Volunteers Program
Boston College, Office of Campus Ministry
McElroy Commons 233
140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

If your corporation matches donations, please enclose the appropriate forms.

Appa Volunteers, under the umbrella of the Trustees of Boston College, is a non-profit 501(c)3 with a federal tax exemption number of 04-2103545.

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