Group shot of Westfield State students who participated in the service trip to Nicaragua. (Photo submitted)
WESTFIELD – Nineteen Westfield State University students traveled to Nicaragua from January 3-17 as part of an International Service Learning course, headed by faculty leaders Kathi Bradford, director of Alumni Relations, and Kelli Nielsen, president of Westfield State University’s Alumni Association. This was the fourth consecutive year that students traveled to Nicaragua and assisted the local non-profit organization La Esperanza Granada, which services the city of Granada and its various neighborhoods.
Working with La Esperanza Granada allowed students to study the cultural diversity of Nicaragua while engaging in service learning opportunities and activities in a global setting. La Esperanza Granada is a volunteer organization that focuses on children’s education and provides opportunities and resources for the long term educational advancement and community development of Nicaraguan neighborhoods. In providing educational development, La Esperanza Granada hopes to brighten children’s futures and instill within them the skills they need in order to succeed and work towards bettering their communities.
Kathi Bradford, one of the faculty leaders that accompanied students on the servicing learning course, said that Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America, and that “La Esperanza provides another net of support to keep children in school and better their futures.”
This January, students built a technology classroom in the elementary school from the foundation to the roof in just two weeks. The classroom will be ready to use when school starts in February and students will use the netbooks students transported there, which were provided by another donor. Bradford stated that Westfield State students have built a total of two technology classrooms, the foundations for three additional classrooms, and a community center “in the time we have been going to Nueva Esperanza.”
Bradford said that, in working and interacting directly with the children they were helping, students were able to communicate and create a bond with someone from another country.
“I believe the thing that most changes our students is learning how to communicate and create a bond with someone who is so very different from each of them,” Bradford stated. “Our interaction with the people, especially the children, is especially life changing.”
Deryn Copeland, an English secondary education major (2015), a third time participant and a leadership team member, said that this course has not only brought her new experiences, but has prepared her for her future.
“Through my opportunity to teach the children in these underdeveloped villages, I learned about the kind of teacher I wanted to be later in my career, and also which direction I wanted to take my career in,” Copeland said.
Having a leadership role in the service learning course helped Copeland further connect with her peers, and gave her the opportunity to share what she has learned on her previous trips to Nicaragua with other Westfield State students.
“I love working with the new students and introducing them to the culture I knew they would come to love just as much as I do.”
When asked if she planned on traveling to Nicaragua again, Copland stated that she not only planned to travel to Nicaragua again, but to many other Central and South American countries. The service learning course in Nicaragua helped prepare her for this future undertaking, and without it, she said, she wouldn’t be as confident in her abilities to do so.
“Without my experience traveling with this class, I do not think I would be as prepared and confident as I am to take on this journey.”
Ian Faulkner (2017), a first time participant in the service learning course stated that the people he worked with affected him the most.
“Because I went back to the worksite in the afternoon, I got to work closely with the masons and got to know them and a little bit about what their lives are like. What they taught me will stay with me forever and their attitudes about life gave me a new perspective.”
When asked if he planned on traveling to Nicaragua again, Faulkner said that he definitely would, and that he reminisces about his time there every day.
“I would go back to Nicaragua with this group of students and professors in a heartbeat. Even if it was a totally different group, I would still go because this service learning course changed me a lot and I still think about the adventures we had every day.”
For more information about Education Abroad at Westfield State, visit http://westfield.ma.edu/educationabroad . If you would like to learn more about La Esperanza Granada, visit the organization’s official website http://www.la-esperanza-granada.org/ . For more information about this year’s Go Global courses at Westfield State University, access the brochure here http://issuu.com/westfieldstatealumi/docs/westfield-state-go-_global-brochure?e=1755668/4309575 . This year’s upcoming courses include Jazz in New Orleans, a nursing course in Guatemala, International Business in Paris and Milan, The Theatre of London: Past and Present in London, England, A Costa Rican Intercultural Tropical and Ecology Experience, Making History: Monuments, Museums, and Multiculturalism in London and Istanbul, Oceanography In The Field: Puerto Rico, and American Cities, Civic Learning: Chicago.
