Category Archives: Honduras

Finding Comfort in Being Uncomfortable

Currently, I am finishing my Fall 2019 semester of my senior year of college. However, it wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year that I fully declared my major in Spanish. Between graduating high school and entering college, I took a gap semester to Central America. Therefore, I entered UMASS in the Spring semester. Not only was I unsure of what I wanted to study, but I also wanted to be involved in an experience involving learning about other cultures. I additionally wanted to focus on my own personal growth. Initially, I was extremely nervous going to a location that I was unfamiliar to. When I mentioned to other people where I was going for my gap semester, often times, their reaction wasn’t as positive as I anticipated. This was commonly affiliated with their ideas regarding safety in such areas. The initial responses I got from other people about where I was going provoked high anxiety and doubt in continuing with the program. However, it was one of the best things I have ever done. Continue reading →

Sustainable Tourism

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For my integrative experience, I took a gap semester and traveled with a gap year program called Carpe Diem. With Carpe, I traveled in a small group to Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Honduras for a total of 3 months. I lived in Guatemala and Nicaragua for 5 weeks each, and then stayed in CR and Honduras for only a week each. My trip consisted of traveling to and staying in a new place just about every week, which allowed me to see and experience a ton. During my experience, I learned a lot about sustainable tourism, sustainable volunteerism, and sustainable travel, and I wanted to share some things specifically about sustainable volunteerism, because service learning is something that many students consider when thinking about an integrative experience. Continue reading →

Mentor opportunity with local non-profit

Be a short-term mentor for university students from Latin America!!

Every summer in July and every winter in January, a non-profit called ITD (Institute for Training and Development, Inc.) manages and runs a Study of the U.S. Institutes Program (SUSI), a prestigious program that is sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department. The program entails five weeks of intensive academic study in U.S. Policymaking, Entrepreneurship, Economic Empowerment, Leadership, and Politics. The highly competitive scholarship is awarded to twenty undergraduate students each time, all young leaders from Mexico and Central and South American countries. In the summers, the students who come to ITD are from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala; In the winters, they are from Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. The students live in Amherst for three and half of the five weeks of their program, and attend specialized lectures at Amherst College and at ITD. Continue reading →

My friend, Jake.

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I have been struggling with this blog post for a couple days now. I want to share the experience I had with Jake with all of you, but I am having the hardest time finding the right words to describe my sentiments. As I mentioned in one of my homework posts, I met Jake (20 years old) at the homeless shelter I have been volunteering at. We clicked and became friends right from the start.

When I first started volunteering at the start of this semester, Jake had no contact with either of his parents (they are divorced and live in different states) and had been a guest at the homeless shelter for several months. He was on probation and participated in mandated community service every week in order to lift his probation. No parental support, no job, no car, no house…not at all an easy life. Continue reading →