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."

Meet SSLP Student Kelly O'Brien

This summer, our club is sponsoring two students, Kelly O'Brien and Laura Berlage, as part of the Summer Service Learning Project 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 Kelly O’Brien in this post and Laura in a later one.

Kelly hails from Columbus, Ohio. She will be a junior next year and will be studying abroad in Dublin, Ireland, for the Fall Semester. She is a Biology Sciences major with a minor in Theology. In the future she plans to attend dental school. (In addition to her volunteer work this summer, she is studying to take the Dental Admissions Test (DAT) in August.) On campus, she lives in Welsh Family Hall and serves as her dorm’s Social Concerns Coordinator. She was a proud member of her dorm’s flag football and basketball teams. Since her team made it to the finals in both sports, she has played at Notre Dame Stadium and on the main basketball court in the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center. She also has been a tutor in chemistry. To help pay for her education, Kelly works in the South Dining Hall.

Kelly reports that she is very busy at the Life Resource Centre:

I schedule appointments and take clients through the baby pantry. I assist in the parenting classes and provide childcare while the parents attend class. I am working to update the database for our abstinence brochures that we sell. I am also working to acquire email addresses of our constituents for our new electronic update system. I am in charge of putting together the binders for the parenting class. I have been helping to coordinate and manage volunteers that come in to help, and I am also just beginning a marketing project to contact past clients and recipients of certain grants throughout the country. There is never a dull moment!

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the club by paying your dues, buying a raffle ticket, or making a donation. Your support provides a direct benefit to students like Kelly and to the Life Resource Centre.

Watch for the background on Laura Berlage’s work at Daybreak, a shelter for runaway children and teens, coming soon.