LOCK HAVEN, Pa. - Many Lock Haven University students and faculty will put their spring break to good use as they engage in service learning projects. MountainServe Center for Global Citizenship is coordinating three service learning programs over the university’s spring break, March 8-12, 2010. Students will serve in Tighfist, Morocco; Long Beach, Mississippi; and Zacatecas, Mexico.

In Tighfist, Morocco, an Amazighen village in the High Atlas Mountains, Physician Assistant students from the LHU Clearfield and Lock Haven campuses will provide a health clinic and health education for the community, including medical histories (with the assistance of an interpreter), physical exams, ECGs, blood glucose levels, other basic screening tests, and basic treatments. Undergraduate students will engage in a community mapping and video documentation project. They will be staying with the residents of the village as they learn about the culture of Morocco in addition to their work. Assistant Professor Curtis Grenoble and MountainServe Center Director Anne-Marie Turnage are the leaders for the trip. They will be accompanied by Associate Professor Matthew Girton of the Communications and Philosophy Department.
The program in Long Beach, Mississippi will involve housing reconstruction and community development work in post-Hurricane Katrina Gulf Coast communities. Twenty-one students will participate in this project. They will be led by MountainServe graduate assistant Madeline Hoff. LHU’s MountainServe Center has been serving the Long Beach community since November, 2005.
The program in Zacatecas, Mexico, is led by Associate Professor Anna Mae Smith and Associate Professor Amy Way. Smith’s Physician Assistant students will spend four days in the public hospitals of Zacatecas, providing triage care at a walk-in clinic to the medically underserved in the city. Way’s undergraduate students will earn credits for a Health Science Seminar (HLTH 498) by spending their days in community centers and an elementary school in Zacatecas and surrounding areas. They will deliver lessons in nutrition, proper hand washing, and teeth brushing to over 400 children, while also providing information to women about newborn care, cervical and breast cancer, and nutrition.