Editor’s Note: This essay was first runner-up in the 2007 Outlook Church-College Partnership Award open to graduating seniors invited to write on the topic, “How my education at a PC(USA)-related college has equipped me for significant service and leadership.” The writer received a $200 award. Information for the 2008 contest is available on page 32.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 12, Jesus serves his disciples by washing their feet. Afterwards, he commands them to wash one another’s feet. This example of servant leadership was the subject of a Bible Study given recently by Eckerd College’s Dean of Students. Jim Annarelli led a group of students in a foot-washing service to demonstrate the importance of serving others and allowing oneself to be served. This is just one of many examples of how Eckerd College has fostered my passion for service and desire to act as a servant leader. My experiences of service within the classroom, through extracurricular activities and Campus Ministries, have provided me with many opportunities to develop my leadership skills within the context of service.
The first class I took at Eckerd College, during the freshmen short term, was a service learning class. In addition to reading texts and participating in class discussions on servant leadership and issues of justice, we participated in service activities around the city of St. Petersburg. We saw firsthand the problems that plague our society, from racism and sexism to poverty and environmental degradation. We spoke to local individuals who have devoted their lives to solving these problems, often, one abused wife, one injured seabird, or one underprivileged child at a time. Through this class, I began to see that my college education needed to be about more than learning the skills necessary to enable me to make money and advance my own agenda. I needed to become aware of suffering and injustice in the world, and learn the skills necessary to help find viable solutions.
During the fall of my sophomore year, I became very involved in Campus Ministries at Eckerd College. I became a student ministry coordinator, one of a group of students who lead different religious activities or small groups on campus. I chose to start a service-oriented small group. Through this group, I would organize and lead service projects followed by biblical reflection at least once a month. Some of the various service events I organized were a workday at a daycare center for underprivileged children, helping an environmental NGO raise awareness for pollution prevention, running a school-supply drive and co-organizing with Eckerd’s Office of Service Learning the annual Crop Walk for 2006.
In addition to providing me with opportunities to lead service activities, Eckerd College Campus Ministries and the Center for Spiritual Life have provided me with many extracurricular opportunities. For example, they sent me to an environmental justice conference in Belize. By this time, I had already chosen my majors of environmental and religious studies, and was working on forming connections between the two. Out of this experience, my passion for environmental justice was born.
During the winter of my sophomore year, I participated in another month-long service learning course. This one took me to Cape Town, South Africa, where I worked in a school in the township of Nanga teaching environmental education. I discovered the immense poverty of the South African black majority, despite the post-apartheid promise of equality, and realized the extent of the country’s racial segregation. Many of the children in the school where I worked had never interacted with a white person before, and most of the children in my class expressed a wish to be white. In addition, I realized, for the first time, the tragic proportions of the AIDs epidemic. After reading about and meeting with a member of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, I also realized the hope offered by reconciliation. As my passion for international service and environmental justice was strengthened, I began to think about the ways in which I could begin to address the problems I had encountered.
When I returned to Eckerd, Campus Ministries provided me with an outlet to use my international learning experiences in Belize and South Africa to convey to other Christians the need for environmental justice. I led two workshops on environmental justice. The first was for the Presbytery of Tampa Bay’s Supper Saturday for Mission, the second was at the Presbyterian Student gathering before the 2006 General Assembly. Recently, I have worked with Campus Ministries to start an Eco-churches program, a partnership between Eckerd College and local churches with a focus on incorporating environmentally sustainable practices in everyday church activities. My role has been to relate to the church the link between global environmental justice and local practices as well as to organize service events between the churches and Eckerd College students. In this way, I have been given the opportunity to take what I have learned in the classroom and apply it through servant leadership within the larger community.
In addition to studying liberation theology at Eckerd College, I have been given the opportunity to practice it as well. In September 2007, the Center for Spiritual Life gave me the opportunity to attend the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship conference and learn about their accompaniment program in Colombia. In addition, we were able to discuss ways in which the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship can gain a presence on college campuses and encourage students to become involved. Over spring break, Eckerd offers a variety of spring break service trips. This past spring I was able to attend a trip to the U.S./Mexico border, where we worked with Human Borders to fill water tanks for migrants crossing the desert. On this trip, we also worked with No More Deaths in Nogales, Mexico, to serve food to recently deported migrants.
My time at Eckerd College has provided me with both the academic background and experience necessary to wash the feet of my neighbors, both globally and locally. As I leave Eckerd to pursue environmental justice, I feel confident that I have been given adequate preparation for the journey ahead and a number of companions who will be there to wash my feet as well.
Elizabeth McGurk of Palatka, Fla., is scheduled to graduate in December from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. After graduation, she plans to attend law school to pursue a career in environmental law.
