From 12 days, to five hours, to 27 minutes: Service trip grows increasingly popular
This year’s Appalachian Experience enrollment reached full capacity in just under 28 minutes. The APEX trip occurs during spring break, sending students to 17 different locations in five different states and helping communities in their designated regions.
The 2017 APEX sign ups sold out in record time; by comparison, the 2016 trip sold out in five hours, and the year before, all the spots were filled within 12 days.
“It’s kind of unique for everybody,” campus minister Matt Fullmer said of APEX. “There are Habitat sites and there are also more community-based sites and then there are a mixture of both. It just depends on where you are placed. It is a community partnership with reflection as with some service and reflection together.”
The program started 25 years ago when 10 to 15 students took part in the first trip. Soon after it was named Project Appalachia, and is now called the Appalachian Experience.
“I think on this campus there is a desire to serve and immerse oneself into a community,” APEX leader AJ Simon, ’17, said. “I think there is something beautiful about going down with the St. Joe’s community and building a community within Appalachia and St. Joe’s.”
Leader Jackie Pignataro, ’17, explains the 27-minute signup as “heart happy.”
“It is a perfect description on how quickly our community signed up to go on our APEX. It definitely gives a lot of students here pride that we have our peers ready to give up their spring break to grow as an individual,” Pignataro said.
The program is something that may expand in the future, if given the green light. It is considered to be a smaller program, capped at 500 students. Fullmer wants everyone to be able to experience the program.
“It is not about quantity. It is about quality,” Fullmer said. “We could have a quality program and maintain the sanctity that everyone has a unique experience and everyone comes away with something—a new understanding for social justice and maybe meeting a friend.”
Regulations and a lack of resources limit the expansion of the program as of now. There aren’t enough accommodations or enough vans to provide for everyone who wishes to participate in APEX. However, Fullmer hopes to expand the service program if given the chance.
“We didn’t come to serve their [Appalachian] community. They served us,” Fullmer said. “They burnished our souls and we went back as better people and more aware. Why not have everyone experience that?”
The leaders also stressed the meaning of community and relationships. APEX is not just about building something.
“It really is men and women with and for others, so it’s not just to build something and leave,” APEX leader Evan Addis, ’18, said. “We are going down there to get integrated with the community and connect with the region itself.”
APEX is about understanding the Appalachian region and learning from the people within it.
“Each person is a puzzle piece and they are each bringing something different to the trip. That is why each trip is unique in it of itself,” Simon said. “But throughout the trip, that puzzle is getting formed and, by the end of the trip, you have a complete picture. You try to bring that back and show the picture to everyone.”