By Evan Doan, News Editor
Brigid Avery and Yesenia Bernal-Alcala led a group of 17 Aquinas students on an alternative spring break trip to Detroit. They called the trip “A Vocation Journey to Detroit” and the students looked at Detroit with place-based careers and calling in mind. The trip was fully funded by NetVUE.
Aquinas students at Belle Isle Island during their trip to Detroit – photo by Brigid Avery
The students started their trip by meeting two Aquinas College alumni, Xavier Jaramillo class of 2000 and his wife Schianti Dixon class of 2002, who had opened their own Caribbean restaurant in Farmington Hills. Jaramillo shared with the students his vocation journey and his calling to open Xav’s Caribbean Fusion and “feed people’s souls and stomachs”.
Aquinas students eating at Xav’s Caribbean Fusion – photo by Brigid Avery
The students met another alumni later that day when they visited the Heidelberg Project. The Heidelberg Project is an outdoor art installation that has been a part of the city for over 30 years and was shown to the students by Jeanette Pierce, a 2004 graduate of Aquinas.
The group also visited Belle Isle Island which offered views of downtown Detroit, an aquarium, and a conservatory. After which the students traveled to Hamtramck to meet with 14 Aquinas alumni. At the Fowling Warehouse the alumni shared their personal careers and callings with the students as they enjoyed Buddy’s Pizza and games.
Sunday started with Mass at Gesu Catholic Church where the group met up with Ben and Monica Rischiotto DeGarmo, 2012 alumnus and regulars at the church. The group also had a surprise encounter, singing in the choir was 1977 graduate and former Board of Trustees member Caretta Cooke who felt her connection with Aquinas “be reinvigorated” after meeting with the students.
Aquinas students visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts – photo by Brigid Avery
After mass and lunch the students explored the Detroit Institute of Arts, a world-renowned museum with over 65,000 artworks with some dating back to early human civilizations.
The students finished their day with food from Mom’s Spaghetti, a pop up restaurant created by famous Detroit music artist Eminem, and the Museum of Illusion which uses practical illusions to create unique photographs.
On their final day the group headed to Dearborn Michigan to tour the Ford Rouge Factory. Students saw a truck assembly plant and an assembly line which revolutionized manufacturing in Detroit in the early 1900s and saw Detroit’s economy and population explode. The group finished their vocational journey at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation before boarding the bus for Grand Rapids.
This trip was provided to the students for free due the NetVUE grant which saved each student 700 dollars.
The Saint 