(Photo by Alex Lang: Alyssa Lubrino helps paint a house that will serve as a community center for the Association Mission Campus.)

Mickey Abbatiello (a junior on the men’s basketball team), Alyssa Lubrino (a sophomore on the women’s swimming team), and athletic trainer Naomi Chang are among 20 students and 10 administrators that traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana as part of the 2011 CUNY Athletic Conference’s (CUNYAC) Goodwill Tour.

The trip (May 25 to June 4) to New Orleans provided the traveling students and administrators with a terrific opportunity to enhance their leadership and community relations skills by visiting areas still affected to this day by Hurricane Katrina.

Abbatiello, Lubrino and Chang just finished a busy semester, and will continue their hard work by volunteering their services on the Goodwill Trip, which is CUNY's first since 2007.

The entire trip is being documented on the website CUNYAthletics.com. As updates become available, it will be posted below or visit CUNYAthletics.com.

TRIP DIARY (Courtesy of Alex Lang, Brooklyn College) 

DAY 1

DAY 2

DAY 3

DAY 4

DAY 5

DAY 6

DAY 7

DAY 8

DAY 9

DAY 10

PRESS RELEASE (Courtesy of Gregg Cohen, CUNYAC)

CUNY GOODWILL TOUR READY TO EXPLORE THE BAYOU

“GOODWILL AT HOME” IN 2011 TAKES A TEAM TO NEW ORLEANS

Flushing, NY – Following five extremely successful international goodwill tours from 2003-2007, the City University of New York Athletic Conference is proud to announce its return with a “Goodwill Tour at Home,” as a contingent of 30 accomplished student-athletes and administrators from all sports will head down to New Orleans, Louisiana from May 25 through June 4, 2011.
 
At this time as the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 and the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina are upon us, providing a unique opportunity for two urban communities and their citizens affected by destruction and displacement to collaborate.  CUNY’s scholar-athletes were still children when 9/11 occurred and approaching adolescence at the time of Hurricane Katrina.  As New Orleans continues to rebuild and endure the after-effects of an extreme catastrophe, New York’s students are one of the few communities that can offer an empathetic hand and lessons in survival.  Like New York and its abundant diversity, New Orleans is a rich mixture of Spanish, French, Caribbean and Canadian cultures.  It is a natural and timely choice to select as CUNYAC’s first state-side tour site for Goodwill at Home.
 
The goodwill tour concept was initiated to augment the student college experience by providing a platform to promote individual and community development.  In addition, the tour offers benefits by exposing and marketing the CUNY name and its students/staff to a wider external audience.  The mission of the CUNYAC Goodwill Tour concept is to develop well-rounded student-athlete leaders who can serve as ambassadors of CUNY, community advocates, and role models on their local campuses. Student-athletes and student leaders will travel abroad with coaches and administrators to engage in humanitarian work in high-need areas of the world, to exchange cultural values, and to develop skills necessary to become leaders in college, career and life.
 
On the previous tours, a sport specific team has engaged in cultural and athletic activities in a country that has growing interest in the particular sport. The five teams have travelled to: Argentina for women’s volleyball, Dominican Republic for men’s basketball, Ecuador for women’s basketball, Italy for baseball and South Africa for men’s soccer.
 
This time, top student-athletes from all 15 CUNYAC member colleges will be joined by a student-athlete from Division II Queens College, therefore and athletic excellence will be represented from each of the 16 CUNY campuses that offer intercollegiate athletics and add one representative each from the Macaulay Honors College, the Malave Leadership Academy, and the University Student Senate. Along with participating administrators from CUNYAC, the CUNY Central Office and as many as five member campuses, the team will provide said humanitarian support to New Orleans.
 
Highlights of the tour include: The Rebuild Program – serves homeowners throughout NOLA who for financial, physical, or other reasons need assistance for reentry to their homes.  Since Katrina, Rebuild has gutted more than 900 homes and is now assisting residents by providing volunteers to rebuild homes. A sports clinic at All Souls Episcopal Church & Community Center in the Lower 9th Ward.  A tour of New Orleans’ levee system by  John Williams, city and master planner for the Lower 9th Ward or a professor from Tulane University. A visit to New Orleans Aquarium Imax Theatre to view “Hurricane on the Bayou” – A short documentary film explaining the important environment role of the wetlands surrounding Louisiana. Plus several tours of the area swamp and wetlands, southern plantations and a learning about Cajun country.
 
As one of the largest urban public university systems in the world, The City University of New York (CUNY) by nature of its New York City home is challenged with serving a diverse student population and educating not only New York’s citizens, but the world’s citizens.  The University’s overall enrollment of more than 480,000 students is comparable to the population of Kansas City, Missouri, the 35th most populous city in the United States.  Consequently, this places CUNY in a unique position to greatly influence the education experience of many individuals and communities.