UPDATED: December 12, 2010, 10:20 p.m.

On a sweltering summer day in Mae Sot, Thailand, shredded piles of trash, plastic and rubber glistened under the hot sun in one of the city’s largest rubbish dumps. Small bamboo huts rose up among the debris, serving as the only refuge for its residents. The landfill housed 50 to 100 illegal Burmese refugees who fled from ethnic conflict and economic hardships in their homeland. Now they scrounged to make a living, sifting through garbage for bottles and cans.

It was John Giammatteo’s second visit to the dump, where he had intentions of conducting a follow-up interview about the everyday life of a Burmese man and his family. Little did he know this day called for celebration.

The man who had no material wealth threw a traditional Buddhist gathering in the dump to commemorate the birth of his daughter. He handed Giammatteo some tea and cookies and insisted he partake in the party. On his way out, the director of a nearby clinic, and Giammatteo’s self-appointed tour guide, expressed his astonishment that Giammatteo didn’t cry after witnessing the squalor.

This wasn’t his first encounter with poverty. Giammatteo, a senior magazine journalism and anthropology major at Syracuse University, previously studied abroad in India in the fall of 2009, where he worked with Sri Lankan refugees at a rehabilitation agency.

‘I shed my tears in India,’ he said.

Giammatteo represents only one of many American students who, in recent years, traveled abroad to lend a helping hand, said Lesley Robinson, the campus relations partnerships manager at Cross-Cultural Solutions, a nonprofit organization that specializes in organizing volunteer programs worldwide.

Robinson said the trend proves hard to quantify because volunteers often don’t receive credit, making students hard to track. However, the volunteering abroad movement among college students has gained momentum, according to the organization. Students are reaching out, and universities are seeking partnerships. Called service-learning, the trend encompasses everything from teaching English in China’s underprivileged towns to working for human rights organizations in Chile.

SU represents only a slice of the national scope. Sue Shane, associate director for administration and program development for SU Abroad, said the office has created numerous service-related programs in the past few years as a result of student demand.

In 1993, SU incorporated the service-learning model into a public affairs program in London, where it then spread to Spain and other campuses abroad. Students have done some really unique things, Shane said, from conducting puppet shows for a children’s hospital in Madrid to growing vegetables in Sicily’s fieldsreclaimed from the Mafia. The service-learning model has evolved over the years, and now SU Abroad offers a wide range of summer courses, internships and short-term programs, all based on helping foreign counterparts.

Shane said the service-learning model was set in motion with the launch of the International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership in 1982. The not-for-profit educational organization ‘made a very big deal about service-learning, and it’s become a model that is now integrated in so many study abroad experiences,’ Shane said.

The organization’s purpose is to serve students, colleges, universities, service agencies and related organizations worldwide by fostering programs that link volunteer service to the community and academic study. The industry expanded as provider organizations, such as Cross-Cultural Solutions, jumped on the bandwagon and offered tuition-free, service-related trips.

Student international volunteering is broken into two categories: for credit and not for credit. It’s up to colleges and universities to develop accredited service-learning opportunities for their students, while private organizations or nonprofits satisfy the remaining needs of volunteers simply hoping to channel their time and efforts internationally. Programs range from weeklong trips to monthlong expeditions.

To better tackle international problems, Pam Heintz, director of SU’s Center for Public and Community Service, said, ‘You have to bring a base of knowledge and a packet of wisdom together to figure out how countries can respectfully work together and make a change.’ She said she encourages students to participate in service-learning opportunities to interact with abroad communities and determine the real need.

Shane said there is a difference between service-learning opportunities and internships. When students sacrifice their time and efforts to provide service to an organization instead of embarking on an experience for themselves professionally, they are much more willing to do what’s needed and not worry about their personal development, she said.

In addition to those who participate in coursework-related trips, there are students who seek similar experiences through their own determination. Over Spring Break of this year, Kristina Martimucci, a senior biology major, went on a weeklong trip to Ecuador with an organization called Medicine, Education and Development for Low Income Families Everywhere (MEDLIFE), whose goal is to help families achieve greater freedom from the constraints of poverty.

After extensive fundraising efforts, Martimucci provided hands-on care to a rural community in the Ecuadorian mountainside. She treated all children for parasites, a condition contracted through poor drinking water, and assisted in giving women Pap smears, a screening that’s never been experienced in the remote culture. MEDLIFE’s goal was to provide immediate assistance to the villagers and arrange for intensive medical care if needed.

Martimucci said her experience was one of self-exploration. Although she’s dead set on being a doctor, her trip helped her decide if she’ll pursue service-related work internationally in the future. Her answer is yes.

‘This is about empowering individuals,’ Martimucci said.

Arielle Faden, a junior biology major, went on the same trip and said she came to understand through her experience that, although people often chose their lifestyles, student volunteer work can improve their situations.

‘A lot of them truly enjoy their lives, but then again, no one wants to lose their child to a parasite,’ she said. 

Hans Schmitz, an associate professor in political science at SU, said students are embarking on service-learning experiences now more than ever for a variety of reasons. Possibilities include increased global awareness, the influence of the baby boom generation and students encouraging each other through word of mouth, Schmitz said.

Alyssa Hillman, a junior public relations and policy studies major, said she didn’t understand the international need for English proficiency until she arrived for her three-week teaching course in a poor, rural province in northern China. After a weeklong training boot camp, Hillman single-handedly instructed a class of approximately 20 students, ranging from 15 to 18 years old. The students participated in the optional class to hone their English speaking skills in efforts to pass the Chinese equivalent to an SAT exam, their only hopes of ever attending college.

On Hillman’s last day, one of her students approached her and opened up about her family situation. The girl was the youngest of three children. Her sister worked in a factory, and her brother was a farmer. ‘I’m the last hope for my family,’ said the child. Without higher education, she said she had little chance of escaping poverty.

Giammatteo fondly reflects on his rewarding experiences abroad. The anthropology major said his main goal is to learn about what refugees are doing to shape their displaced lives and futures.

‘I don’t think I expected, in many ways, the normalcy of the dump,’ Giammatteo said.  ‘People had built their lives there — they created a space for themselves to survive and live against the odds.  This was their every day.’

ygalstya@syr.edu

Published on December 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm