Trips

El Salvador

Since the early 1990s, a delegation of juniors, seniors, and faculty/staff takes a trip to the village of Ignacio Ellacuría, in El Salvador during Holy Week.  Our girls meet their Salvadoran peers whose high school scholarships we sponsor as well as spending time being present to the whole community.  Students learn the joys and sorrows of life in this third-world country during the civil war of the 1980s and its aftermath. Some time is spent in the country’s capital of San Salvador visiting the graves of the Salvadoran Martyrs, Archbishop Oscar Romero, Ita Ford & Maura Clarke, and the 6 Jesuits of the University of Central America.

Mississippi

Since the early 1990’s NDP has sent a group of seniors on a week long-trip to serve lower-income families in the Deep South around Easter.  We work in Starkville, Mississippi with their local Habitat for Humanity chapter, assisting families in their dreams of owning a good home.  We sleep at the local Boy Scout camp and dinners and lunches are provided by local churches that host us in the evenings.  We also participate in local activities such as going out to the Mississippi State baseball game.

Virginia

Started in 2004, the Virginia Habitat for Humanity Trip with Calvert Hall provides students from NDP and CHC the opportunity to get to know one another while providing a meaningful service to a family on the rural eastern shore of Virginia.  Students often work together to make their meal though some are generously donated by local church groups. In the evenings there will be time for recreation and reflection on the day’s experiences, and we take a recreational day at Virginia Beach mid-week.