Boston College Athletics
Megan Cooley: Recounting Jamaica Magis Service Trip
August 15, 2015 | Softball
Photo Gallery of Jamaica Magis Trip
Earlier this summer, Megan Cooley – a two-time All-ACC centerfielder on the softball team – went on a 14-day service trip to Jamaica through Boston College’s Campus Ministry.
The “Jamaica Magis” program aims to instill an understanding of and reflection on the impact of service and social justice.
Cooley collected her thoughts on the trip below.
As a student-athlete at BC, the school year is jammed for us, which can be a real roadblock for some of the other popular service programs on campus. This trip was important to me in the sense that it was a rare opportunity, and I am incredibly grateful to Campus Ministry and Father Michael Davidson for making it a reality.
Taking part in service in general is incredibly valuable. I have also taken several classes on development economics and politics and wanted to see in reality the topics I was learning about in class.
I knew a little about Campus Ministry and the trips that it operates throughout the school year so I did some research on Jamaica Magis, the only trip that is planned during the summer.
I actually knew everyone in my 25-person group, including four student leaders, a graduate assistant and Father Davidson.
We had been meeting once a week during the semester leading up to the trip and planned several fundraising events before leaving for Jamaica, so we were all very comfortable with each other.
We would wake up at 6 a.m. every day to the sound of Jamaican pop music blaring out of a small portable speaker – one of our only brushes with modern technology on the trip. Then we would eat breakfast together, get dressed and prepare for the day.
We drove or walked to Holy Family Primary School, the local elementary school near us and spent class days helping our teachers with their lessons or teaching by ourselves, with breaks for recess and lunch.
Then, after the kids went home, we would walk down the street to Missionaries of the Poor, which is an organization that works to bring together the poor, especially the destitute and homeless, as a family and forging community relationships with the wider society. There, we would get to know the residents and help in any way that we could.
Finally, we would return back to the Jesuit residence we were staying at and relax for about an hour – playing soccer, talking, and napping were popular activities during this time – before gathering again for dinner, which usually consisted of traditional Jamaican cuisine.
After dinner we would have a group reflection for about two hours, which gave us a chance to recap and process what we had done that day.
The first couple days with no technology were strange for all of us, but we got used to it – in fact, soon it felt more natural than using phones.
The intent was for us to be completely focused on and engaged with each other and the people we were meeting. In addition to keeping us present and grounded, this also made it easier for us to live in solidarity with many of our Jamaican friends who also didn’t have phones of their own.
This was actually my first summer service trip experience, although I have been involved with the Devlin SAF-E trip to New Orleans, led by the BC Athletic Department and some local service placements.
Looking back on it, when I first began serving on campus I did it with the intention that I was going to give back to the community, help people, etc. These still are great surface-level goals – however, I have found personally that in all cases I end up being “helped,” ironically, by those very people I seek to help in the first case.
The recurring realization that I have very little to give and so much to gain in terms of learning from the people I serve is, in short, why service has become so important to me.
Personally, service has been instrumental in my education at BC. To begin with, the concept of reflection associated with service here has been critical. On the trip, each of us had completely distinct experiences that reflected our unique personal histories and created different lenses through which we viewed and filtered out experiences. It was amazing to hear from other members on my trip through these different lenses.
In another sense, my perspective on the poor was completely changed by this trip.
At first, I felt bogged down by a feeling of powerlessness amid long-established cultural and economic structures that seemed designed to keep the poor and defenseless down instead of raising them up.
This began to gradually change for me as I started to work through these issues with members of our community.
I realized that my perspective on the poor was backward: I pitied them and felt badly for them while in reality they are in many ways “richer” in happiness, understanding, and love than I ever will be.
I think it is important for students at Boston College – student-athletes, especially – to recognize how privileged we are; we have the resources to do what we love at a great institution.
Being part of this Jamaica Magis trip taught me to recognize both this privilege and the responsibility that inevitably comes with it.
