Arrupe Society Promotes After-School Service
	By Jeff Brogan With contributions from Elise Canfield and Patrick Kurz

	On a warm, sunny Tuesday in May, an hour after 8th period ended, a small group of Prep students walked across campus to hop on a Red Line Metro train. Once a month during the academic year, the Arrupe Society – Prep’s student-run service club – sends a group of two to four students to Martha’s Table, a non-profit organization located in northwest D.C. Through the education and support of under-resourced families and the distribution of emergency food supplies to the homeless population of D.C., Martha’s Table aims to break the cycle of poverty in our nation’s capital. In 2010-11, 17 Prep students supported this goal by traveling by van and distributing a medley of hot soup, sandwiches, sweets and fruit to those in need. Adam Bacigalupo ’12, who participated in several trips to Martha’s Table, commented, “I really enjoyed this service project because it helped me to reach outside my comfort zone. It enabled me to think of the homeless in a new way. Through my service, Martha's table inspired me to think positively and brought me close to people I didn't previously know.” With support from the Black Student Association, the Arrupe Society facilitated a second series of after-school service trips to Washington Jesuit Academy. The mission of Washington Jesuit Academy (WJA) is “to educate academically talented adolescent boys from low-income families.” At WJA, students arrive around 5:00 p.m. as dinner is being served - WJA serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner to their students – and the Prep students eat with the WJA boys. At 5:30, students clean up, gather in the “well” (a community space used for meals and assemblies), and then disperse to their assigned classrooms for study hall. The Prep volunteers stay in the well to work with Mr. C.J. Gaffney’s group of 10 students. One of the advantages to this is that Prep students who volunteer regularly have an opportunity to work with the same students each month.

	“Helping with homework” can mean quizzing a student for an upcoming history test, or helping them work through a pre-algebra problem. Students are expected to focus exclusively on their homework until 6:30 when they are allowed to ask Prep students non-homework questions. Most often they want to know how hard the work is, whether there are opportunities to socialize with girls, and what sports the Prep students play. Now that it is spring, the 8th graders are not required to attend study hall and the group is smaller, but still full of questions – the rising 8th graders are already thinking about their options for high school. In commenting on the role the Prep volunteers have played in the past year, Mr. Gaffney stated, “Having the Prep students visit does wonders towards communicating our ‘Men for Others’ principle. Our mission at WJA is to present a counter-culture that embraces selfless action and delayed gratification, and the GP Hoyas embody everything that we are trying to teach. They relate to our guys, they are genuine, and they are a great example of what we hope for our guys to be. I am proud to know that the Prep community continues to exercise the principle of compassion.” Through these valuable partnerships with WJA and Martha’s Table, the Arrupe Society was able to expand its after-school programs from six trips in 2009-10 to 21 trips in 2010-11. This would not be possible without the generosity of the 38 students and nine members of the faculty and staff who led and participated in these trips. Such participation was facilitated by resident students Hanzhi Wang ’11, Ricardo Dira ’12, and Bryson Hoover-Hankerson ’12 who could be seen recruiting classmates in the days leading up to each trip. With the election of next year’s Arrupe Society officers, Adam Bacigalupo, Ricardo Dira, and Gun Joong Kim ’12, planning is already underway to continue and hopefully expand these after-school programs. Our mission of service continues. To promote a “faith that does justice,” the Arrupe Society facilitates opportunities for service and solidarity for and with those in greatest need.