By Luca Filigezi, Local News Editor

This past weekend, Xavier’s volunteer organization known as X-CHANGE  held their official semester kickoff with a few changes from previous years. 

Traditionally, the X-Change kickoff takes place in Alter and lasts around three hours. This year, the event was held in Arrupe Overlook and was only an hour and half long. 

The event on Sunday was organized by Tala Ali, the Muslim Chaplain for the Center for Faith and Justice (CFJ) with the assistance of the X-CHANGE board members. The changes to this year’s event aimed to strengthen the X-CHNAGE community and foster genuine connections with others. 

“Usually the kickoff is in Alter and we are separated into our smaller,  individualized service groups,” junior biomedical sciences major and X-CHANGE board member Meg Calumpang said.  “But having everyone in a larger room like Arrupe, you were able to see everyone who wants to do the same thing as you. So, if you already knew someone there, it helped foster dialogue and connections.” 

The event began with introductions of the board members and site leaders. Then, there were small group interactions and ice-breakers. Then the kickoff explored what a typical week of service would look like. 

X-CHANGE is a weekly volunteer program sponsored by the CFJ. Participants volunteer for organizations based in the greater Cincinnati area including Over-the-Rhine Community Housing, Washington United Church of Christ Homework Club and the Little Sisters of the Poor charity. 

X-CHANGE roots itself in the three main gifts of Ignatian heritage: service, reflection and solidarity and kindness. 

“We try to immerse students in relationship-based engagement… through service and reflection,” their EngageXU mission statement reads. 

The main intended lessons for participants of X-CHANGE include appreciating the value of reflective practices, identifying systemic causes of social problems, analyzing the impact of community service on communities and on themselves and articulating the value of creating a community through relationship-building. 

The kickoff ended with students being able to partake in a networking exchange, with over one hundred students and faculty given the opportunity to swap contact info and better establish relations with each other for the upcoming semester.
“It was one of the best kickoff events I’ve seen with X-change,” junior Philosophy, Politics and the Public major and X-CHANGE board member Kaitlyn Lott said. “A key message we promote with X-CHANGE is the importance of horizontal rather than vertical relationships. Being with others and learning from them rather than coming from a savior complex.” 

“The purpose of X-CHANGE is to create a community and understand your role in the world. Seeing service as not a self-transformative thing, but something you can communicate with others not in the same situation as yourself,” Calumpang said.