Thursday and Friday blended into one day because my cousin came to visit from Minnesota. She is a junior and high school, so she is starting the college search! After a two hour drive to Logan Airport due to traffic, I was excited to finally see her, but we had a long drive back to campus thanks to rush hour traffic.

We thankfully got back to campus just in time for my Student Programs for Urban Development (SPUD) intern reflection. Since Campion was closed, we were able to have the reflection in the chapel. It was the perfect, quiet place to have our reflection and could not have come at a better time for all of us. We definitely needed those thirty minutes to focus on relaxation and centering.

Part of why I love being an intern for SPUD is getting to know the other interns. We all share a common passion for service and social justice. The responsibility of overseeing sites and planning events on campus can make it feel more business-like, but it is the reflections that we have every other week that bring us back to why we do SPUD.

The reflections give us time to reflect upon the injustices we see in Worcester as well as the wealth of knowledge, growth, and potential we see in the community. We all work with different populations, so it is helpful to come together so that we can find the commonalities between our work. Then, we are able to work with our lead community organizer to see what we can do to further engage our community in the hopes of enacting change.

Today, after an early morning of working out and classes,  my cousin and I got lunch at the Pub and then went on a tour of campus. The main attraction was of course the Holy Cross Bookstore. After visiting Dinand Library and the academic buildings, we made our way to St. Joseph Chapel to finish the tour.

After our day of exploring campus, we went into Worcester for dinner at in the Canal District. As if we weren’t full from dinner, we went to the Queen’s Cups for cupcakes for dessert.

We went back to campus quickly so we could catch the volleyball game in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. They invited the organization, the Pink Hippy, to campus for the game and honored the women who are currently fighting breast cancer.