Meet SSLP Student Laura Berlage

Laura Berlage and Kelly O'Brien are two Summer Service Learning Project students who are being sponsored by the club this summer. The Summer Service Learning Projects are organized through the Center for Social Concerns on campus. Students who complete summer service projects receive a $2300 tuition reimbursement scholarship. John Krug is coordinating the program this summer for our club, as he has done for the past several years. We’ve asked both Kelly and Laura to tell us a little about their background and their work this summer. We’ll take a look at Laura Berlage in this post; Kelly's post was earlier this summer.

Laura is from Indianapolis. She will be a junior. She is a Theology and Arts & Letters Pre-Professional double major. Laura hopes to go into ND's Echo program to get her master's in theology and work in youth or campus ministry. She is also considering a minor in the language, Português do Brasil.

Laura serves as the Gender Relations Commissioner at McGlinn, her dorm on campus. She leads campus retreats, such as the Notre Dame Encounter and Sophomore Road Trip, and works as a tutor at the University Writing Center. Up until last semester, she worked with the Student Managers organization, and helped various sports teams with practices and games, including being on the field for the ND-Purdue game last season. (Recall that the team had one of their best games of the season that game. Thanks, Laura!)

At Daybreak, Laura works with the homeless teenage youth of the Dayton area. She is the Coordinator of the Summer Program. As part of her work she has to plan (and execute) daily activities for the youth who are still minors. On Mondays, she hikes with the kids at John Bryan State Park or Clifton Gorge, and in the middle of the week they try to do educational or creative activities to keep the kids' minds fresh while they're out of school. Fridays are usually reserved for something simply fun. For fun activities, she tries to solicit free tickets to activities such as a Reds game, a Columbus Crew match, or a day at King's Island, to name a few. (If she can get free tickets, the shelter funds are freer to help the youth with necessities.)

Besides going with the youth on their outings, she works down in the shelter itself during the day. She does everything, from something as simple as taking a youth to the supply room to get him a decent shirt. Often, though, she answers "hotlines," which may be from a youth in need of shelter, or another person calling on her behalf. She takes down the information and either refer the youth into the shelter, or if he is too old, she refers him to appropriate resources elsewhere. If Laura's not needed on the phones and all of her planning is done for the day, she can socialize with the youth - she often takes them outside and plays basketball with them. Sometimes, she even teaches music theory to them. She also helps some of the 18-year-olds who are aging out of state resources with resume buliding and other life skills. Laura sums it up this way, "It's all fun. As long as the youth know you respect them, they tend to be just as fun to work with."