I feel compelled to write a short blog of my own about the
service learning program here in Naples, Italy.
This program, initiated by my wife, Dr. Sarah Tenney Sharman several
years ago, provides "on the ground" experience for the students. I have had the honor to accompany and
volunteer with these student groups a few times.
The program here in Naples deals with the refugee problem
and gives the students great insight into this problem globally. There are four graduate students and four
undergraduates in the program this year.
The students are working with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
dealing with a tremendous influx of asylum seekers, migrants, human trafficking
victims, etc. Over 76000 have arrived in
Italy this year alone. As you can
imagine, this creates tremendous pressure on an already overwhelmed
system.
The students are writing their own blog about their
experiences, so I will let that speak for itself. My purpose is to tell the Citadel community
that it would be very proud of these students and how they have represented the
Citadel by diving in and working with these organizations. As one organization leader put it, "
these are real soldiers."
This is the vision my wife had when she initiated this
program. I think I can say confidently
that for the NGOs here, the Citadel is #1 not only among Southern schools in
America, but it is also #1 in southern Italy.
- Howard Sharman
No comments:
Post a Comment