Melanie Kessler Serves Honduran Children

MANCHESTER, NH (02/21/2012)(readMedia)-- Melanie Kessler, a senior nursing major at Saint Anselm College, spent her winter break in Honduras volunteering at an orphanage that is home to abandoned, abused and impoverished children in Honduras.

Kessler led a group of 11 students from Saint Anselm who volunteered with the organization Amigos de Jesus, which hopes to heighten the spiritual, physical, emotional, social and intellectual growth of its children.

"I was immersed in the Honduran culture and my eyes were opened to new things I never see living in America," said Kessler.

Kessler and her group are a part of Saint Anselm College's Service & Solidarity Missions program. The program consists of student-led service trips overseen by Campus Ministry during winter, spring, and summer breaks. Now in its 22nd year, Service and Solidarity Missions will send 216 students on 16 trips in 10 states, and to Washington, D.C., Costa Rica, and Honduras throughout the year.

Kessler, who has now participated in three of the student-led service trips, believes that doing service has helped her to develop into a better nurse. "The two each incorporate so critically into my life and because of the service I have experienced I feel as though I am going to be a better nurse for it."