Nichole Ciccarelli ’18

Back to All What MOVEs You? Spotlights

2018

Cause for Paws, Penguin Plunge, and Service Trip Committee

What involvement did/do you have with MOVE? What program did/do you volunteer with and/or lead? What years?
Cause for Paws Leader 2014-2016, Penguin Plunge Team Coordinator 2014-2018, Service Trip Team Committee Member/ Leader 2015-2018

What’s your MOVE story?
MOVE was one of the biggest reasons I chose to attend Saint Michael’s College because I grew up volunteering in my own community with my family. I quickly found that every program offered the opportunity to meet new people and learn new things while having a small hand in helping the greater Burlington community members. I also learned that service through MOVE was as much about physical acts of service as it was about connecting with people on a personal level. The service trips were the bread and butter of my MOVE experience because we were able to put a full, uninterrupted week’s amount of work into serving members of a single community somewhere in the country where we had never been before. In fact, the last service trip I led through MOVE was just 20 minutes from where I grew up. I witnessed both immense hardship and amazing community organizations that I never knew about before, and that brought things really full circle for me.

In what ways did/does MOVE impact you?
The opportunity through MOVE to connect with people at so many different levels has been my greatest takeaway. I was able to witness firsthand both the strength and shortcomings of many communities—the SMC community, the greater Burlington community, and communities both around the country as well as around the world. I learned how to have hard conversations about what we owe each other as people, what our institutions can and should do for those they serve, and what our roles are in the progress of or barriers to people’s basic needs being met. I met some of my best, lifelong friends through MOVE and learned some of my greatest, lifelong lessons as well.

If you are an alumni, what influence does MOVE continue to have on your life today?
My experiences with MOVE permanently shaped the way I approach conversations—with the knowledge that there is always common ground on which we can connect with one another.