While many college students spend their spring breaks traveling to popular vacation spots, several members of the TCNJ Catholic Campus Ministry had a slightly different destination in mind.

During their week-long respite from classes on the school’s Ewing campus this year, 11 members of the ministry, along with campus minister Father Bill Lago, spent three days in Camden serving those most in need.

“(We) thought that instead of spending the last few days of Spring Break sitting on our couches, that we should go and do something both worthwhile and rewarding,” said Chris Serge, who recently graduated from The College of New Jersey.

The delegation volunteered with De Sales Service Works, a Camden-based service program administered by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. The organization is linked to a soup kitchen, clothing center, grade school and nursing home, so opportunities for volunteer work were abundant.

While at the retreat house, they helped to clean up yards of local residents, painted a couple of classrooms at a local elementary school, and even took advantage of opportunities to learn about the people of Camden. The group finished off their time there by attending a Mass in Spanish.

For Thomas Samper, a TCNJ student who organized the trip, it was the blend of service and spirituality that made the experience worthwhile.

“It was a time when we could spend our days doing some work to help those in need, and then have a structure and a place of mind, and a Catholic perspective to really bring what we experienced back into focus,” he said.

Samper added that putting together a “service retreat,” as he called it, was a plan of the group’s for some time. While they have hosted many retreats and are active in community service, combining the two with such an immersion experience was a new concept.

Throughout their time in Camden, they worked with students from DeSale University, who, Samper said, shared a common bond with their faith.

When discussing the choice of locations, he felt that Camden was a natural choice. “To be frank it just makes sense,” he said, emphasizing how close it is to both TCNJ and where many of the students live.

“Growing up in the area,” he said, “I’d known about the conditions of people’s lives down there for some time, but there is a difference between knowing something and understanding it and things never really hit home for me until I was down there and saw the city for myself.”

Samper also has a connection to the Oblates, as his high school was run by the order. He appreciated the values he developed there, and wanted to share the same philosophy with his fellow students.

“In many ways that philosophy has shaped me into the man I am today,” he said.

When reflecting on his experience, Serge said he would recommend a similar activity to anyone else, adding that even those with apprehensions will walk away with a lot from such a trip.

“We all gained a greater insight (and) a deeper understanding (of) the world that exists as less than the ideal to which we’ve become accustomed,” Samper said.