The four recipients of the Mev Puleo Scholarship will be making
a presentation on Monday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. in room 173 of the
Busch Student Center. These Saint Louis University students
participated in a two-month social justice service trip to
Nicaragua last summer.

The presentation will have a slide show, short talks given by
the participants and a brief Nicaraguan history presented by Xenia
Barahona, a native Nicaraguan from the Center for Global Education
in Nicaragua.

The Mev Puleo Scholarship is a service scholarship given to
theology majors at SLU.

“The scholarship is sponsored by the theology department, and
funded by Peter and Evelyn Puleo. The scholarship is in memory of
Mev Puleo, who was a SLU grad who worked to bring to light the
suffering of the people in Central and South America.
Unfortunately, she died at an early age,” Kevin Toben, senior
majoring in theology and scholarship recipient, said.

The students were chosen to receive this scholarship because
they are theology majors and because of their previous community
service experience.

They lived in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, located in
the west of the country.

Each student stayed with a host family, which fed the students
and gave him or her space in their homes.

“We did three days of service at our service placements. The
other days of the week were spent in educational meetings and
class. On the weekends we would travel to other parts of
Nicaragua,” Toben said.

The students worked at two different places: Olla de la Soya, a
Catholic organization that fed the children in the neighborhood and
Pajarito Azeul, an orphanage for mentally handicap children.

“You are totally immersed with the people … I learned about
being present, being aware. It made me more committed. These are
people, and we have a responsibility to them,” said Christine
Baudin, graduate student in historical theology and trip
participant.

“Being a theology major, I believe that I needed this trip,”
Toben said. “I have studied many facets of theology at SLU, but at
a certain point your professors cannot teach you any more about
social justice or the Kingdom of God unless you have experienced
firsthand the poverty and suffering that Jesus spoke out against in
the Gospels. The trip to Nicaragua helped me understand what it
truly means to pick up my cross and follow Christ,” he said.