Serve and Learn in Guatemala
Sinclair students can apply now for the privilege to travel to San Lucas Toliman, Guatemala for spring break. Study abroad applications for the week long trip are due before October 15, and costs amount to about $2,000 before applying for partial scholarships.
In Guatemala, students will learn about the culture, language and traditions of the predominantly highland Maya local population. Travelers will get to experience many activities and events popular in Guatemala. Students will also learn to build fuel-efficient stoves for local families.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to experience a different country and culture,” said Sinclair student and past Guatemala traveler Alana Focht. “It helped me grow as a person and really opened my eyes to how different people’s wants and needs are and how we look at things,” Focht said. “Plus, who doesn’t love a beautiful scenic view?”
San Lucas Toliman sits in the Sierra Madre mountain range and next to Lake Atitlan. The famous English author Aldous Huxley once described Lake Atitlan by saying, “Lake Como, it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlan is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing.”
The March 2018 trip will be led by communication professor Heidi Arnold, and sociology professor Kathy Rowell. “Any student can go,” said Heidi Arnold. “Many go by taking an honors course.” Any student with a 2.8 or higher cumulative GPA can declare an honors course after discussing an extra project with their professor and filing an honors course declaration.
“I’ve seen students make huge paradigm shifts during theses trips,” said Arnold. According to “The Huffington Post,” traveling can help a student learn a foreign language, explore cultural differences, see cultural similarities, understand history and gain personal independence.
Josh Greschner, a support staff member at Sinclair’s center for teaching and learning, is one of many who hopes to travel to Guatemala this spring. The trip will be Josh’s first time traveling outside of the United States. “You get to see outside the American bubble,” said Greschner. “Being able to serve people by building them something they need, it’s powerful to get to do that for somebody.”
The Guatemala learning trip is scheduled to leave on March 2 and return on March 11, 2018. To learn more about this trip or other Sinclair service learning trips, visit www.sinclair.edu/international/study-abroad. Saint Augustine once said, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
Will Drewing
Managing Editor