Falling back in line with St. Louis U. High tradition, Campus Ministry announced to the senior class on Tuesday that it would be returning to the pre-Covid Senior Project, which sees seniors leave campus for the month of January to serve those in need. After being unable to proceed in both 2021 or 2022 due to Covid-related complications, the return of Senior Project has brought much excitement amongst the senior class.

Beginning with the Class of 1971, and continuing all the way up until the onset of the pandemic two years ago, seniors have been excused from their typical day-to-day school routines for the entire month of January in order to dedicate their full time and effort to service. In past years, students have chosen from a myriad of SLUH-sponsored sites in and around St. Louis, with some seniors even looking beyond the metro area to fulfill their service requirements. After nearly a half century of working closely with partner sites, it had never been a problem for each senior to be matched up with a site and guaranteed a spot somewhere.

The pandemic, however, complicated this harmony, as most of the places which had typically welcomed SLUH seniors with open arms were not accepting volunteers. With a large number of sites focused on bringing aid to communities deemed to be at higher risk to Covid—such as the elderly and immunocompromised—the presence of outside volunteers presented too great a risk. 

So instead, SLUH pivoted to the Grande Project for the Class of 2021, which attempted to bring a similar social justice message by giving seniors a chance to advocate for a cause of their choosing. Intended to be a temporary stand-in until Senior Project could return, the decision was made to bring back the Grande Project for the Class of 2022, largely because SLUH was still unable to guarantee that all members of the senior class could receive a service assignment. 

Though effective in bringing students closer to social justice causes, the Grande Project failed to prove itself a worthy permanent substitute to actual service of presence, which, coupled with the relatively icy reception to last year’s swap to Grande Project, made reinstituting Senior Project an easy decision.

“Grande Project was placed there to say that, even though we can’t go out and do active service, the spirit of Senior Project needs to stay alive,” said Director of Campus Ministry Fr. Matt Stewart, SJ. “Grande Project adds in that element of advocacy, but there’s just no substitute for in-person service of presence.”

Although Campus Ministry still remains just short of being able to offer enough service opportunities to fulfill each student’s service needs, the department is confident that the lingering empty spots will fill up quickly.

As Covid has become less and less of a barrier in international travel, the Department of Global Education is moving forward with foreign service trips, giving seniors the opportunity to serve marginalized communities abroad. Currently, seniors are invited to apply for programs in Poland (available for Russian students), Guatemala (no language requirement), Egypt (available for Arabic language students), and Taiwan (available for Chinese language students), with other possible options for French and Spanish students still under consideration. 

After a largely successful round of foreign trips over this past summer, Director of Global Ed Rob Chura is confident that senior service trips will go off without a hitch.

The return of Senior Project has been met with a great deal of excitement from members of the current senior class, many of whom were dreading the idea of possibly being unable to partake in the SLUH tradition.

“I was pretty sure that they were gonna do the normal Senior Service, just based on how much better Covid is now than it was in past years,” said senior Lucas Rammacher. “But still, I was just worried that they were going to go ahead with Grande (Project) anyway. Now that (Senior Service) is for sure back, I’m hoping to return to Chile, which I visited over the summer, in order to maybe help with the Jesuit school that we went to down there.”

When taking the two pandemic years into account, this year will also be the 50th year of Senior Service at SLUH, a milestone which many in the Class of 2023 take pride in representing.

Said senior Nathan Abner, “It’s definitely a really cool thing to take part in, being the 50th Senior Project class.  Especially with it having been gone because of Covid for the last few years, I’m really excited to get back to the tradition.”

In terms of next steps, seniors will receive more detailed information with regards to available service sites in the coming weeks. Students will each be paired with a faculty advisor, who will work with them in selecting and registering for a site on X2Vol.