Saint Louis University’s Micah House is seeing the beginning of many changes this school year, the least of which is its name change to Micah Program.

“Since our students typically live together in Marguerite Hall for their freshman and perhaps their sophomore years, it seemed better to adopt a more general title,” said Micah program director Donald Stump.

Said freshman and new Micah program participant Amy Skupien, “I heard about the program and really like the idea that it was a living community that emphasized service and also put a large focus on religion.”

The expansion of the Micah Program involves an increasing number of students, as well as opportunities for the students to take part in a number of new community organizations.

“Students who apply to Micah are such a unique wonderful bunch that it is hard to turn any away,” Debra Wilson, Micah program coordinator for nearly six years, said.

Historically, Micah has accepted 25-30 incoming freshman into its program each year, but over the next five years they hope to increase that number to 60 so that by 2012 the program will have doubled in size to 230 students.

“We were receiving many more applications than we could accept, and it seemed a shame to turn them away,” said Stump. “We decided to develop a second track to accommodate the students growing interest.”

The new track focuses on Hispanic immigrants to St. Louis and works closely with St. Cecilia Parish, the Latin Languages Perish for the archdiocese of St. Louis. Students can help teach in Sunday school classes and confirmation programs for children and help young adults in the parish with limited language skills to adjust to American life.

Originally, the Micah program worked only with their “adopted neighborhood,” the historic Shaw neighborhood that is located just south of Saint Louis University’s Medical Campus. Freshmen in the Micah program will still work primarily in this area.

Kottmeyer High School is a new work site next to the original Shaw neighborhood. The school takes in at-risk students or those struggling academically. It creates curriculum focused on each student’s specific goals.

“It’s really based on each individual student, which helps them excel,” said Skupien who will volunteer there for two-and-a-half hours weekly.

This year the Micah program will not only continue its commitment to service in the Shaw neighborhood but will also expand to perform community service in the growing Latino community around Cherokee Street in the Near South Side.

Acci?n Social Comunitaria is a “Hispanic Community Support Center that offers educational and social services” and is an additional work site in the program’s new track. Students can get involved with tutoring and mentoring or work as translators.

Other organizations on Micah’s new Hispanic track include the International Institute and La Cl?nica. La Cl?nica is a health care clinic for low-income Hispanics where students will get to use their Spanish skills to help do interviews with patients and translate for physicians, among other routine volunteer tasks. “Some Spanish is required to work on the second track, and some of the newer sites are only open to upperclassmen, though we’re hoping eventually to get younger students with the necessary skills involved,” said Stump.

Another addition to the Micah Family is a semester abroad in El Salvador at the University of Central America (UCA). To allow students to see the conditions leading to mass immigration to the United States, Micah students will study at Casa de la Solidaridad, an academic initiative between SCU, UCA and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. Their mission is to promote justice and solidarity through the integration of academic study with direct immersion with the poor of El Salvador. This program will be offered to sophomores and above starting in the spring of 2009.

The Micah program also offers a certificate in urban social analysis that is open to any SLUU student, not only those doing service with Micah. For more information, check Micah’s website, micah.slu.edu, or email [email protected].

Stump encourages interested students to get involved: “Students are welcome at any time to apply.”