I believe it’s extremely important to be involved in your community. Being involved with the issues and needs of the people in your own backyard creates a type of awareness that’s sometimes hard to find in the world we live in,” says Bond Nicole Bordelon, a senior at Academy of the Sacred Heart.
Bordelon is the head of the community outreach club where she organizes outreach opportunities for Sacred Heart students. In addition to the outreach club, Bordelon volunteers for the Jesus Project Ministries in Holly Grove, where she tutors once or twice a week. This past summer, Bordelon was a camp councilor for the 4 to 10 year olds.
She also works with Jesus Project Ministries with the Back Pack Outreach program. The program’s mission is to bring children and families from the neighborhood together so they can eat lunch, listen to music, play games and receive a new backpack and supplies for the new school year. Volunteering with this project has a long-term commitment, because the volunteers raise money, shop for supplies and plan the back to school event. The neighborhood was so excited for this event that children lined up three hours early to receive a backpack.
Bordelon has also gone on service trips to Nicaragua for Amigos for Christ.
“The people of Nicaragua completely embody the qualities that I want to possess,” says Bordelon. “I was so touched by my time there that I’ll be spending a month in Nicaragua as a short-term service leader this coming summer. I knew from the moment that I stepped on the Amigos for Christ compound that I was meant to spend time there and do what I could to help.”
Bordelon has grown as a person through volunteering and service trips. She has learned not only from the people she has helped, but also through the people who started the organizations.
Bordelon’s mother implanted the need to give back to her community. For as long as she can remember, her mother touched those around her. “I can remember from an early age my mother would always stop and give a dollar to the homeless people on the street,” she says. “When people ridiculed her for it, claiming that they would just use it for drugs, my mother would say ‘everyone deserves a chance.’”
Bordelon will attend George Washington University in the fall, where she plans on studying international relations, majoring in conflict resolution. She isn’t sure what she wants to do as a career but has researched opportunities with the Peace Corp and Doctors Without Borders. She would love to be able to travel while giving back to the world.
