Berry Students take the schools’ mission around the world during the summer.
Sarah Bryan, COM 250 Reporter
ROME, GA– As final exams are approaching and students are scrambling to finish the last assignments of the semester, their minds are full of exciting summer plans. While some students plan to relax on a cruise or at the beach, others are planning to spend the summer serving their communities and the world.
Starting on May 25th, freshman Lauren Burnette will head to Panama City Beach, Florida to be a part of the Campus Outreach Summer Beach Project. Summer Beach Project is centered on immersing college students in a foreign environment and teaching them evangelism skills.
“I will have a full time job, and I will also be learning about the Bible and who God is,” Burnette said. “I can then share who He is to other people that I will encounter at my job.”
Burnette said she will receive her summer job assignment at the time of the trip, and that she is the most excited about getting to devote a whole summer to sharing her faith with others in Panama City.
Sophomore Anthropology major Emma Wright will not just travel to one country to do mission work this summer, but three. Wright will travel to Austria, Haiti, and India over the course of 8 weeks.
“I’ve always been extremely interested in international missions. I love to travel and I love to interact with other cultures,” Wright said. “When my pastor approached me with this opportunity, there wasn’t a question in my mind that it was something I wanted to do.”
The Berry College nursing program will be traveling to Costa Rica this summer as part of their “cultural emersion” experience. In Costa Rica, the students will gain valuable nursing skills while also giving health care to those in impoverished conditions in Costa Rica. Joining them is Junior nursing major George Edwards.
“We will be working in the burn unit in a local hospital and volunteering at an orphanage and day care,” Edwards said. “I’m excited to experience a country I’ve never visited before, and I’m also excited for a chance to study abroad with 25 of my classmates and close friends.”
There are many places all over the world that will be impacted by the compassion and hard work of Berry students this summer. The college motto of working with our “head, heart and hands” doesn’t end at the end of the school year.
“You can work with your head and your hands at just about any college, but at Berry you truly see students working with their heart as well,” Edwards said. “Being immersed in service, it’s impossible to not be compelled to serve others as well, and I think that’s changed me for the better.