MTV is slated to run a news feature on “alternative spring breaks” at 1 p.m. CST on Saturday, says Nicole Daniels, NPU director of external relations. While preparing the show, the camera crew discovered the work being done by the students.
Daniels says it is ironic that MTV is doing a feature including the NPU students, because although the school had conducted a media campaign highlighting the trips, they had not targeted the MTV network. The publicity effort had focused on other media outlets.
North Park students were featured in a Chicago Sun-Times column on Wednesday, and more students are scheduled to be interviewed live on Friday by one of the city’s most popular AM news stations, WGN Radio News/Talk 720.
In her Sun-Times column, Cindy Richards focused on the work done by North Park University women who provide a counterpoint to the “girls gone wild” image. She features 18-year-old freshmen Kiera Johnson and Ruth Blider. Johnson dug trenches and fixed houses in Oaxaca, Mexico. Blider worked with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans.
Richards also quotes Ginny Olson, co-director of the Center for Youth Ministry at North Park, who told the columnist that she sees “more of a trend toward responsible compassion. More and more girls are seeing they really can do something significant.” Olson is the author of Teenage Girls: Exploring Issues Adolescent Girls Face and Strategies to Help Them.
To order a copy of the book online, visit Covenant Bookstore.
Junior Stina Peterson and freshman Tanikia Thompson are scheduled to be interviewed on WGN sometime between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Saturday The interview can be heard online at WGN Radio Interview.
Peterson also traveled to New Orleans, and Thompson traveled to Oaxaca and Tiacolula, Mexico. Rich Johnson, the director of University Ministries also will be interviewed on the program.
For more information on mission trips organized through North Park, visit the University Ministries Global Partnership website.
