This week I am excited to share a blog post from one of our faculty members, Sherri Branscombe, who attended the international service-learning trip to Nicaragua - I hope in reading her post you are as inspired as I was!
"Making a Difference in Nicaragua"
On May 2, 2015 seventeen students and two faculty members, Mary Lendway and
myself, travelled to Central America for the first two week Study Abroad
Service Learning Trip with the School of Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism. Our
mission of service learning was evident by our motto for the trip worn proudly
on our shirts, “Making a Difference in Nicaragua”. We were eager to give
something back, to serve the community, and to represent not only Humber
College, but Canada as proud global citizens. The students were enthusiastic about
contributing to our sustainable projects. When you build someone a home,
present them with the power of education through teaching English, or provide
over 600 hundred children a basic right to life, a meal, we knew that our efforts
were having a positive impact on the lives of many. Service learning provides
an opportunity for education where the students don’t even realize that
education is occurring because it is fun, rewarding and takes place outside of
a regular classroom setting.
Monty’s Beach Lodge welcomed us into their community in Jiquilillo,
Nicaragua, a remote fishing village along the beautiful sand beaches of the
Pacific Ocean. During this trip Monty’s became our home and the staff embraced
us like family. It was incredibly rewarding to see our students come upon their
own realizations, moments of humbleness, and grasp a sense that the whole is so
much more than the individual and that we live in such a big, but small and connected
world.
What we didn’t realize however, was that the impact on our lives through
our time in Nicaragua would be even greater than the impact we expected to make,
and for many of the students, this impact was life changing. From the shift in
consciousness of a simple choice of words, students were heard saying “I now say
hungry instead of starving, because I am more aware of the context of those
words and know that I am not starving.” To the students who have changed the
direction of their career path “I have been enhanced professionally by
realizing that what I wanted to do for the rest of my life is not as important
to the planet as I had expected. I am now thinking of going through the route
of volunteer coordination in developing countries.”
As
a professor, it was most rewarding for me to connect with students outside of
the classroom and to be a part of their growth during our two weeks. In that
short time students went from slight discomfort upon arrival as they were
immersed into a rustic and remote environment under conditions unlike their
own, to very quickly finding their own way through various service projects
while at the same time making life-long friends, to appreciating the simplicity
of life and the discovery that life is about so much more than just an
individual on an solitary path. Some things cannot be taught in a classroom;
they need to be experienced whereby the student can make their own realizations
and conclusions. The transformation witnessed within our students was vast and
powerful where they identified themselves beyond their individualism and as
part of a bigger community. I am truly proud of our students, each one a true
representation of global citizenship!
Sherri Branscombe
Professor of Recreation and Leisure Services & Sport Management
School of Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism
Humber College
