ConVal Student Council is a group of 18 students who have been elected by their peers to serve the school and represent ConVal in the community. About 10 years ago, the council decided they wanted to do something “big” to connect ConVal to the world, so they made a connection with the Youth Service Opportunities Project in New York City. Since then we have been traveling to New York once a year to work with the hungry and the homeless. What follows is a chronicle of our most recent trip.
Friday, 7:30 to 11 a.m.: Eighteen ConVal students pile into chaperones’ cars, and we follow Interstate 91 to Connecticut. The road is straight and boring, but the conversation is lively. The chaperones add their own thoughts, ask questions, or play “fly on the wall” as the students chat. It’s rare for adults to get such perspective on adolescents.
Friday, 11:15 a.m.: The chaperones navigate into the parking garage at Union Station in New Haven. We unload our luggage. Each of us has packed simply; this will not be a glamorous trip. We will sleep on the floor of a church. We will not look our best. We won’t be able to shower. We will be exhausted. We spend the next hour or two eating lunch in the station waiting for our train. The experienced students can’t stop telling the first-timers what it will be like.
Friday, 1 to 2:30 p.m.: The ride on Metro North Railroad is surprisingly exciting. Why do we travel so far away, when there are homeless and hungry people in our own backyard? It’s the sense of adventure. Traveling to New York is like visiting a foreign country. We’ll see a lot of “real” New York that tourists will never see. Students must navigate the city and buy their own dinner. It helps the students grow, and they love it. The last train stop brings us underground, and we roll into Grand Central.
Friday, 3 to 4 p.m.: As we come up from the platform, the students get a look at the famous ceiling of Grand Central Station. Now comes the most challenging part of the journey, navigating through the subway system. The crowd is somewhat overwhelming; it’s rush hour on a Friday. We elect two students to lead us to the subway and find the right train. No one wants that kind of pressure! But when they see the chaperones shrink to the back of the crowd, they have no choice but to figure it out. We have never gotten on the wrong train. We have been separated before, and it happens again this year. But everyone knows what to do – simply get off at Union Square and wait. At Union Square, two other students lead us, on foot, to Youth Service Opportunities Project, located near 15th Street and 2nd Avenue.
Friday, 4 to 8 p.m.: YSOP has been providing student groups with volunteer opportunities in the city for over 30 years. Lisa, the director of YSOP, gives us an overview, but she doesn’t say too much. She wants us to feel safe, but also not to know entirely what to expect.
In the cafeteria, the students don hairnets and get to work in the kitchen, making a meal that will be served to guests from shelters. We call them guests because that’s what they are – we’re making dinner for homeless and hungry people, but it’s not to be seen as charity. The students are instructed to think of it as a dinner party. You want your guests to be well-fed, and to feel comfortable. Students prepare everything from scratch: chicken, potatoes, salad with homemade dressing, stir fry, garlic bread, and a dessert of brownies and ice cream. Students not needed in the kitchen set the tables and prepare games for the guests to play – Jenga, dominoes, chess, Uno.
The guests arrive at around 6:30. They’re mostly men from local shelters, who have been vetted by social workers to assure that they’re safe and that they want to join us for dinner. They vary in age and life experience. One thing we’ve learned over the years: there are as many reasons for homelessness as there are people. The students leave the kitchen and make their guests feel welcome. They play games and talk. This is outside the comfort zone for some of them, but it’s a joy to watch them open up.
After they’ve taken care of the guests, students serve themselves and join their new friends. They sit among the guests and you almost can’t tell the difference. Having a meal together is true communion. This is what we came for.
Friday, 10 p.m.: Debriefing is important and we want our students to reflect. However, we’ve been travelling or working hard since 7 a.m. The YSOP counselors have some topics to share, but it’s really hard to focus when we’re this exhausted.
At last, we get ready for bed. The boys will sleep on the floor of a storage room upstairs and the girls will sleep on the floor of the sanctuary. No one is comfortable – the floor is hard and the lights and sounds of the Manhattan streets keep us up. But we’re so tired; we sleep.
Saturday, 7 a.m.: We’re awakened by bagpipes. A volunteer at the homeless shelter in the building likes to practice, and what better time than 7 a.m.? We stumble to get dressed in our blue YSOP T-shirts and fold up our sleeping bags. Everyone is tired, but we have to pay attention: we are being given our assignments for the day. This year, we’re helping at a number of soup kitchens around the city. We split into groups, mixing up the students so they aren’t just with their close friends and placing them with chaperones they don’t know well. The students are given folders with a description of the work site and directions to get there. The chaperones step back and let the students figure it out.
Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.: The groups arrive at their respective work sites and begin. One group is at a church in Hell’s Kitchen, making casseroles to be frozen for later in the week. These will be served to homeless veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Another group is at a church in lower Manhattan, serving meals to hundreds of guests. A third is in Brooklyn at a busy soup kitchen.The students take full responsibility for the work. In some cases, they’re the only volunteers who showed up.
We work in historic old churches and crowded, dingy kitchens. Inevitably, students end up doing something they’ve never done before: dicing, stirring, cooking, mopping, washing dishes, skinning chicken, cleaning out sink traps. There’s no time to be disgusted. Saying ‘No’ never even crosses our minds. The students are on their feet all day, and they never ask for a break. They never complain and seem grateful to be able to help.
Saturday, 2 to 4 p.m.: We bid farewell to the new friends we’ve made in our work sites. They thank us for our service. Each year ConVal students have been praised for their work ethic, kindness, and maturity. In 10 years, we’ve earned a reputation as one of the best groups to visit YSOP. We bring students who want to come – this trip isn’t required. And once our volunteers arrive, they see how important their work is andthey step up.
A new pair of students are chosen to navigate back to YSOP. We arrive with time for a quick debriefing discussion and hurried goodbyes to the YSOP staff. We take a group photo and walk back to the subway station, two new student leaders getting us safely on a train back to Grand Central. When we arrive, students get their first freedom – a visit to the food court. We realize we’ve been eating light for our entire trip.
Saturday, 6 p.m.: On the train back to New Haven, very few students fall asleep. They’re too excited and having too much fun. They feel proud of what they’ve done. Some are already talking about next year’s trip.
Imagine the amount of learning that has gone on over these intense two days. It’s not a typical curriculum. It’s not mapped out – every year is slightly different. It has a different impact on each person. The chaperones agree – they learn as much as the kids and they learn a lot from the kids.
Eric Bowman is a social studies teacher at ConVal High School.