Reaching the world
Liberty launches new department
A new Liberty University office provides students with the opportunity to be academically enriched and culturally engaged. LU Send may be new, but it continues to carry out the university’s overarching goal to display the gospel of Christ throughout the world.
The new office is meant to serve as a travel agency for Liberty students and faculty, according to Anna Strickland, director of LU Send. LU Send will allow students to travel locally, domestically and globally through Liberty. Both, the Office of the Provost and the Campus Pastors Office will be working together to support the new department.
“LU Send is a centralized hub for student support and group travel,” Strickland said.
Students and faculty wanting to travel will now be to able create, sign up and book trips all through the same office. Strickland explained that the Center for Global Engagement will resource all university trips with service opportunities.
David Nasser, senior vice president of Spiritual Development, described how every trip orchestrated by LU Send will now contain both educational and Christian service components. Both aspects are important so that students can learn about engaging other cultures while also providing tangible support.
“LU Send is not anything new,” Nasser said. “It is a … strategy to amplify both of those two distinctives coming together.”
Students will now be able to travel through LU Send and go to London, Rome, Paris,Tokyo, Israel and New York this year. These trips are being referred to as Flagship Trips.
“LU Send is initiating … Flagship Trips,” Strickland said. “These are our test model for our way of doing it. We are loading those with an academic component that the provost’s office is helping to select. … We are building in the best cultural experiences that you can have in those cities, and then we are adding in that service engagement component in a way that is authentic and relates to your degree that you will get credit for.”
The Flagship Trips are open to both online and residential students. Strickland stated that there are no requirements or limits as to how many students may go on each trip. Registration for these trips will be announced to the student body soon.
Another branch of LU Send is LU Send NOW. LU Send NOW allows students to act as first responders to help in the world when disaster strikes. According to Nasser, first response teams date back to the university’s founding in 1971.
There will be an informational meeting for students interested in LU Send NOW Sept. 9 at 9 p.m. in the Thomas Road Baptist Church auditorium immediately following Campus Community.
In order to get involved, students will have to put down a one-time deposit fee, fill out an application and then go through various trainings to be certified in areas such as CPR and first response training. Students must maintain a certain grade-point average in order to be considered eligible. When disaster strikes, an email will be sent to all eligible students. Those who respond to the email first will have the opportunity to go. This branch of LU Send is already available for students.
Visit liberty.edu/lusend to learn more about LU Send and how to get involved.
Frost is a news reporter.