Kaley Rodriguez
  • Elementary Education
  • Class of 2013
  • Salina, KS

Kaley Rodriguez, Salina, Travels to Seattle with Leadership Southwestern

2013 Jun 5

Leadership Southwestern students and staff recently went on a week-long service learning trip to Seattle, Wash., continuing a tradition of travel in the college’s service learning organizations.

Kaley Rodriguez, Salina, is a member of Leadership Southwestern and participated in the trip.

Travel by Leadership Southwestern is designed to give students opportunities for service outside of the Winfield community. Students expand their worldviews by learning from others and discerning what it means to be a leader in today's global society. Participants raise funds throughout the year to pay for their trip, and students also organize the entire trip. The location of the trip rotates every year among international, Kansas, urban, and outdoors locations.

A total of 21 Leadership students and directors Cheryl Rude and Lindsay Wilke embarked on an urban trip to Seattle, Wash., May 8-15, where the team utilized public transportation and stayed in the Green Tortoise Hostel in the famous Pikes Place Market district. Service projects on the trip included work in a public housing community garden and Seattle parks system, as well as participation in the International District Annual Clean-Up event. Students also aided at three homeless shelter locations across the city. Trip highlights included a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island, the Seattle Locks and Market tours, and a Seattle Mariners baseball game. Students also experienced the culture of the new location and kicked off their trip by eating at a locally owned restaurant, Local 360, where all dishes were made with organic food grown within a nearby radius of the establishment.

Southwestern College is a private institution granting undergraduate and graduate degrees and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. About 1,700 students attend classes at the main Winfield campus, at six professional studies sites in Kansas and Oklahoma, or online around the world.