Last Friday afternoon the College was bustling with students trying to see as many presentations as they possibly could of the 34 social service activities available this year. Among these a completely new service is being launched: a group of students will be going to the Madrasa Islamic Centre in Trieste once a week for cultural exchanges and language support. The Aurora Project, a pilot project launched last year as a student initiative, is now a core social service involving children from Bangladesh and other immigrant communities at the San Michele parish in Monfalcone. Other service intiatives often arise from collaborations with local associations or institutions such as the First Aid Course (Red Cross), the humanitarian aid group collaborating with Fondazione Luchetta Ota D’Angelo Hrovatin in Trieste, integrated sports and integrated music (Calicanto) involving integrated physical and singing activities with disabled children, assistance to homeless people at the train station in Trieste (St. Egidio), as well as Oltre quella sedia, theatre workshops for disabled people. Services providing support to elderly people in the area will also be resumed, including visits to the local hospice and Art through the ages, which involves College students taking elderly people to the Revoltella Museum and encouraging them to enjoy art and bring out their memories from bygone times. Others include activities involving school children which bring College students inside local schools to make multicultural presentations and also entail science dissemination activities and spreading environmental awareness, both by visiting local schools and by inviting students to the College’s science labs.
