Guatemala Gets TLC from LSC

For one group of LSC students, winter break meant a chance to help others in Guatemala.

"Eight students were part of a service learning trip that lasted from February 16th to the 24th," said Darcie Miles, executive assistant to the president. They visited the town of Xela (Shay-la) and assisted with an afterschool program. The students also helped paint classrooms and bought and prepared food for lunches.

"We worked in conjunction with a school in Guatemala where we helped to organize a library, paint classrooms, and help women with their cooking and cleaning," said junior Megan Seidell, one who attended the trip to South America. "We painted classrooms, interacted with students, organized their library and helped the women with their duties."

The students also brought donations for the afterschool program and for two other organizations. Each student had to pay a $500 dollar donation to go on the trip, and they also collected donations for books and dental care supplies. The LSC library donated discarded books from its children's library, and Cindy Robertson, assistant to the dean of administration, collected dental supplies from her dentist's office. Other members of the LSC community also made other various donations.

Miles noted that everyone the group met in Guatemala seemed to have a firm commitment to giving back to the community. Seidell agreed. "I didn't expect the people to be as warm, welcoming, and friendly as they were, Seidell said. "That was the biggest and best surprise that Guatemala had to offer. Miles recalled hearing the director of the afterschool program say that, when he was a boy, he could not go to school because his family could not afford to buy him a notebook. A man found him crying over this and gave him a notebook, telling him to pay the gift forward someday by helping someone else; this inspired him to start the afterschool program. "Many other people had similar stories," Miles said.

"They had received something in their childhood and felt passionate about that and wanted to give something back," Miles said. 

"In addition to their service, the students also went on several educational tours," said Julie Austin, a sophomore accounting major who was one of the student leaders of the trip. "The students learned about how coffee and macadamia nuts are grown and processed as well as how the Guatemalan school system works."

This is the fourth year that LSC has organized a service trip to Guatemala, but this year the trip was also part of a one-credit class assigned to Patricia Shine, associate professor of human services. The trip was led by Austin and Rachel Keller, a senior psychology/human services major. Miles and Robertson served as adjunct faculty and chaperones on the trip.

The trip was run by eXela Ventures. More about this type of service trip can be found by contacting Demetri Patitsas, managing director of eXela Ventures, at www. eXelaVentures.com.

When asked if she would go on the trip again, Seidell responded, "Yes, of course I would do it again!"