Community Corner

Former MHS Student's Advice for After High School: Get Involved!

Sam Wisel reflects on his shaky start to higher education.

Sam Wisel was a quiet kid at Mansfield High School. He didn't socialize outside a very close-knit group, he was shy and he almost never got involved in the school community. Then, in 2007, he took a trip with MHS to help with cleanup in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

"We had no idea what to expect," Wisel said. "This was the first time MHS had taken part in something like this."

He said even two years after the actual hurricane, that the damage was still very apparent. Former Mansfield teacher Cathy Litchfield headed the trip. She and the students went to the Bay of Saint Louis in Mississippi, which is about 50 miles from New Orleans and was directly in the path of the hurricane.

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"We toured the area and it was just an absolute disaster," he said. "It was really creepy. They were still in the cleanup phases (two years after the hurricane), and they hadn't even started the rebuilding phase, which they're doing now. They've come a long way since then... but they still need help. There are people there that still have nothing."

Wisel said that that trip opened him up to the benefits and opportunities of service and volunteerism. He said that in service programs like the Katrina cleanup he really found his own potential, both as a student and a leader.

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"No. 1 thing is that you need to get involved," he said. "Whether you're interested in service or something like intermodal sports, it doesn't matter. It's a way to meet people. Right off the bat it’s the most important thing during that first week of college to open. You need to be open; you need to be open to new people and new relationships."

Wisel said that the Mississippi trip helped him to make friends he still talks to and hangs out with today. In college, he had a similar experience, in that his best friends in school were the ones that he made during service trips.

He went on to say that there are hundreds of different ways to get involved in your school. There are college chapters of Habitat for Humanity and alternative spring break programs. He said the alternative spring break programs were one of his favorite things to do during vacation. The program is basically a way to volunteer in distant places during school vacations and help those in need all over the globe.

He said that the days are not long, usually six to seven hours, and those who run the program also "feed you like there's no tomorrow," in his experience. Volunteers would get days off to go out and scout the area and see the place they are helping out.

Wisel emphasized the importance of getting involved in the college community.

"Use the resources around you," he said. "Just the people around you, get to know people. Introduce yourself to someone new, and you never know the connections you can make based off of just shaking someone’s hand."

Wisel attends Plymouth State University in New Hampshire where he was just recently elected student body vice-president.


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