Summer began 2-3 weeks ago and there are over 100 wealthy rising junior and senior on mission trips in Central America and Africa and Asia. I know this because they and their parents have all posted that cliche pic of a brown kid, aged 2-6, on their knee, with a variation of “This little guy made it so hard to leave.”
It all looks and feels so contrived. How is this [still] a thing? I assume any mention of these trips in an application triggers rolling eyes by now. What really irks me is that there are inner-city youth 10 minutes away that would love it if these same teens came around and talked to them.
Yeah, but if one helps an inner city youth one doesn’t get any “credit” for it. If one travels across the globe and manages to “help” (cough, cough) a brown kid long enough to have someone snap a picture of it and then immediately goes to the tougher part of the trip, you know, hiking, back rubs, sight-seeing, shopping and so forth, and then, by chance, someone posts a bunch of pictures of it it shows how committed to helping others junior is.
One has go to have one’s priorities straight.
What else is funny is a world leader was on the cover of Time magazine or won the peace prize or something because he/she opened the borders to immigrants desperate for help leaving their war torn country and then a few months later that same leader has been blamed by some for his/her lack of leadership being the root cause of the Brexit vote.
Everyone loves cheap energy but no one wants the nuclear power plant in their backyard.
Some of these people are actually very well intentioned, but are at a loss about what they can do to help in a meaningful way. I think in some instances we should try to get away from the old saw of the rich “helping” the poor, whether locally or on a service trip. My high schooler is on a sports team primarily composed of inner city, first gen, low income kids. He plays on the team, works out, eats meals, relaxes, etc. on a daily basis with several members of the team - they come to our house frequently. It’s been enriching on both sides, from what I can tell, and everyone seems to get a kick out of noticing both the subtle and obvious differences in culture.
It’s good to get outside of the box that people from different economic/racial/social groups can’t have peer relationships and interactions are only about one side helping the other.
Admissions is so competitive that everyone is trying to stand out. Mission trips are getting quite common. Another thing that is getting common is for families to start a foundation to put on a college application. If you go to any college orientation you will hear admissions staff saying we get a lot of applications from students who have done lots of community service and other philanthropic activities. For the parents it may seem their child has a unique application but the admissions staff sees a lot of common patterns in all the apps that they receive. Everyone is trying to present their unique story to show what makes them stand out and why they should be admitted. I’ve seen female students create organizations to encourage girls to consider stem careers and learn programming. A lot of different versions of the same thing.
This isn’t on my FB feed, though I do know of one young woman in my circle who did so (and went to Yale). But I doubt that was her big schtick. She was the real deal on a lot of other dimensions.
I don’t really understand the contempt by some on this thread. Is the assumption that the only reason to perform service projects abroad is for resume building? And why assume that service abroad and local community service are mutually exclusive?
We love to travel and are beginning to mix in a little service element when we travel abroad. This year the service element will be more than half our trip, but I still can’t imagine that these trips will warrant more than passing mention on my daughter’s college apps as represent a small portion of her community service experience.
If you haven’t read this report, I urge you to because it describes how the future ought to be for high schoolers - less “doing” for the disadvantaged in a detached way, and more peer relationships and community involvement. These canned (and expensive) service trips for youth don’t make sense in many cases, although for some it may ignite a flame that leads them become engaged later on.
@concernedmom17 I’m amazed that you have 100 FB friends on mission trips! I have one FB friend on a mission trip. She is post college, though, married. Doing the missionary thing. By mission trips, are they Christian missions? Are they building houses, schools, wells? Singing? Just curious. Nothing wrong with traveling and spreading goodwill, IMO. Our church is planning to go to an African country and sing next Christmas break. I don’t plan to go, but I think it would be fun.
@GMTplus7 Love the White Savior Barbie. I love Barbie. She can do anything.
My Facebook feed is packed with parents traveling all over the country with their kids to baseball, lax,hockey,cheerleading,field hockey,track,soccer etc events, tournaments and prospect days.
My younger daughter went on a mission trip the summer after 8th or 9th grade. Notable facts: 1) She did not write about it on college applications. 2) Her reports confirmed my suspicions: the trip had more than one purpose for its organizers, and at least as important a goal as “helping” the residents of the Indian reservation to which the students traveled was the goal of converting the students who went on the trip.