The immersion trip to the De La Salle Blackfeet School has had an unexpected effect on my life in a way that I never would have been able to predict. That may sound a little cheesy seeing as our group has only been in Montana for three days, but certain facets of this trip have provided an emotional and spiritual impact that is timeless. The time that our group has spent as a community, the classes we have participated in with the students of this fine institution, and the hospitality that has been our blessing has turned what may have been a routine service trip into a meaningful reflection in and of itself.
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| Matt Kizior |
Time spent with the small class of seventh graders that reside at DLSBS has shown me that the idea of struggling with something has a variety of ways that it can manifest and resolve itself. The trouble that certain students have shown with math, reading, and science is indicative of a need for motivation, inspiration, and attention that would help them improve their skills and life prospects. As high school students who have voluntarily devoted our time to these children, we have a duty to help fulfill those needs as best we can so that these students can learn the values that a LaSallian school has to offer. Yet we as a group who regularly attend a LaSallian school need to learn to properly enact those values within our own lives and for the good of others. These unique and talented students have helped me realize that to truly live as good people we need to live these values from day to day, minute to minute.So what is the best way to summarize this feeling, this need, of helping to improve others lives? It is that we are not only called by our faith and morals to be brothers and sisters to each other, but also to be teachers and students for each other, continually helping each other. While we are here, Andrew Stefanick and myself have had to help these children focus and hone their intellect and skills so they can write better essays, express their ideas better, and help them realize their own potential. Yet we have also had to connect with them so they understand that we are all in this together: that we are not only here to help them learn the values that will help them improve their skills for the fast approaching future, but also that we are here to learn as much about life from these optimistic and impressive students.
In the process of helping these students, they have also helped us understand the importance of friendliness. In particular, two children from the seventh grade class have helped to shape my view of the personal rewards that teaching can hold. As someone who finds themselves wed to this vocation and cause, it has become a labor of love and respect for these children and this town. The friendships that are formed with these children represent the extent that a person is willing to commit themselves to the welfare of another human being in need. The teachers here have also been representative of that, acting as model teachers of caring and disciplined work that is crafted to help create a better world for these children. For all the academic problems that some students have, they are truly remarkable children.Overall, the experiences and reflections that my immersion trip has allowed me to have are priceless in the way that each has allowed me to understand the vocation and connections we choose and make in life are indispensable. These formative times on our lifes are crucial in helping us become better people and caring individuals, and the interactions I have had with these students has given me the insight to understand that when we devote ourselves to a higher purpose in our lives, it can help create a healthy world for all to live in. A world purified of the transgressions of old and blessed with the wisdom of the ancestral times, a world in tune with the spirit of the Blackfeet, can form a web of friendship and purpose that can lead not only these children, but everyone, into a better future.
Matthew Kizior '11
