While most college students were relaxing during spring break this March, a handful of Rosemont College students and staff from Philadelphia were painting, filing paperwork and helping to teach grade school students in impoverished neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles.

Three ministries of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus - Rosemont College, Response-Ability and the South Central Los Angeles Ministry Project - partnered to continue the sisters' mission of service, educational enrichment and community outreach through an alternative spring break trip. Rosemont College's campus ministry director Joshua Snyder and coordinator Jenna Meehan joined five students in traveling to several sections of South Los Angeles March 1-7.

On March 2, the team painted a mural at St. Paul School. The following day the students read stories at the Los Angeles Ministry Project. And on March 4 the group visited three schools serving disadvantaged students: San Miguel, St. Paul and St. Gregory Nazianzen.

At St. Paul, students were able to let their creativity spill onto the canvas as they put the finishing touches on a mural of sea creatures outside the school's kindergarten classroom. At St. Gregory, the alternative spring-breakers rolled up their sleeves to finish a long-overdue office filing project.

While in Los Angeles, the group lived in community with Response-Ability volunteers who teach in inner-city Catholic schools in Los Angeles.