MOTHER TERESA PROJECT – AT HOME AND ABROAD Students Changing Lives, Beginning With Their Own
a v e m a r i a m a g a z i n e | s p r i n g 2019
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new Ave Maria outreach to the Immokalee Soccer School and Academy (ISSA), was formed within the Mother Teresa Project (MTP) in response to a need that three AMU students saw during their local service work. In late Spring 2018, the idea for Friends of ISSA was formed by a group of three AMU students; Resam Moghimi (2019, Biology), Mary-Kate Dowling (2020, Communications) and Jacinta Hogan (2021, Marketing). ISSA is a non-profit organization located just a few miles from campus that is dedicated to helping low income children by providing structured after-school programs. The students saw the benefit ISSA was providing but realized that these same children were in need of a deeper level of support for long-term academic success. The primary focus of the Friends of ISSA is to offer ISSA children organized mentoring and esteem-building activities. Currently, the Friends club has grown to over 50 student volunteers. AMU students travel to Immokalee each week to run a mentoring program, supporting over 30 children between the ages of 6 and 16. The program is structured so that each child is paired with an AMU student for the entire semester
Founders of Friends of ISSA Resam Moghimi, Mary-Kate Dowling and Jacinta Hogan
to ensure stability and build meaningful child-mentor relationships. AMU students that are not assigned as direct mentors provide supplemental support services to the child-mentor groups. Friends of ISSA is already seeing positive results with the youth being served, including improved grades and more positive attitudes and social interactions with the AMU students. At the same time, Ave’s students are gaining valuable experience as leaders making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. As Jacinta Hogan explained, “Our group is making a mission trip to Immokalee every week.
Immokalee is so close but it is an entirely different world than what we see in Ave each day.” Dozens of Ave Maria students also seek to follow in Mother Teresa’s footprints abroad. During the winter and spring academic breaks, several student groups traveled to Mother Teresa’s missions in foreign lands. As student participation continues to grow, the MTP likewise continues to expand to meet the increasing demand of students for mission trip opportunities. History was made during the winter break when the first group of AMU stu-
