Mother Seton Academy Fitness

By Lucas Szews

Many high school and colleges across America are promoting community service to their students. Loyola University Maryland is no different as they offer many programs for students to immerse themselves in community service. Some of these programs are aimed at helping children from the Baltimore community, both mentally and physically.  One of the programs that focus on the physical aspect would be the Mother Seton Academy Fitness program that takes place here at Loyola.

Loyola offers students with a unique opportunity to help the children from Mother Seton Academy. Mother Seton is a school run by Jesuits located in Fells Point that does not have a gym facility at their school. Therefore, they use the Loyola Fitness and Aquatic Center for after school physical activities.

Employees of the Loyola Fitness and Aquatic and student volunteers run this program. These employees and volunteers chaperone and interact with the kids from Mother Seton Academy promoting physical well being.

Over the course of the program, employees, volunteers and students engage in a number of athletic activities. These include playing basketball, soccer, swimming and rock climbing. They also participate in other activities such as dance lessons, self-defense classes and various other exercise programs.

This program featured a mentoring program in which groups of ten students form Mother Seton were paired with ten Loyola volunteers. They participated in the previously mentioned activities and the volunteers serve as a mentor in encouraging and promoting exercise to the Mother Seton kids.

Community service programs such as this one rely on students volunteering their time to ensure the success of the program. Each year Loyola’s community service program offers students the opportunity to participate in this service opportunity.

Junior, John Swikata is one student who participated in this program. He volunteered for the program with some of his friends and he ended up really enjoying the program. “When I first volunteered I was a little apprehensive. I ended up really enjoying participating in this program and it was nice because some of my friends volunteered with me,” said Swikata. 

Another Junior James Gray was also a participant. He signed up with his friend John Swikata and really enjoyed the program. “I wanted to get involved with some service in campus and was glad to find something active. This was a great program that was good for me and the students,” said Gray.