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Women learn on trip
 Media Credit: Sharon K. Sobotta/Senior Staff Writer Sara Reed (right) and Marleny Nesshengel help Lorenzo Mohina sand and paint a set of children�s lockers at Project Vida in El Paso, Texas. Reed and Nesshengel were among 10 women who devoted their spring bring to volunteering in a Mexican-American community.
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Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part series. Next week there will be stories addressing the experiences, struggles and triumphs of Mexican-Americans living on the El Paso/Juarez border.
As many students hopped on planes to go to Cancun or prepared for a relaxing week at home, 10 SCSU women set out for a 30-hour van ride to El Paso, Texas for a week of volunteering.
The group of women from places ranging from Malaysia, to Japan, to Minnesota and ranging in age from 18 to 24, had no idea how much they would learn from the people they were about to work with or from each other.
The women spent their days working in a community set up to serve impoverished Mexican-American families called Project Vida. The students landscaped and painted alongside maintenance workers, read books with children, played pool with teenagers in an after school program and even participated in a weekly aerobics class along with some of the elderly community members.
The trip took on an extra special meaning for Yoko Honda, senior from Kyoto, Japan. Honda has been in the United States for nearly five years and is in the process of completing a major in Spanish at SCSU. Not only was Honda able to put her skills in Spanish to use throughout the trip, she was also able to develop relationships with students like she has never met in classrooms.
"Until now, I've met many groups of people, but it's hard to find so many people with interests in other cultures, who can get along so well," Honda said referring to the nine other women she traveled and worked with. "It was great to be able to help children who come from different circumstances (than I grew up in), get a perspective on different kinds of lifestyles, and see what life is like for those who speak only Spanish (in the United States)."
Sharon Liew, senior and one of the two participants from Malaysia decided to participate in the alternative spring break trip so she could see more of the United States and do something productive.
"It was amazing to have 10 women in a van for 30 hours and together day and night for six days and have the trip turn out so well," Liew said. "We came from different cultures and countries and it was really nice to share our experiences."
To bring a piece of Malaysian Chinese culture to the group Liew, with the help of senior Alecia Lee prepared a meal for the group, exchanged phrases in Chinese, and taught the other team members and workers a song from their home country.
For students like Angelie Timm, freshman, having students like Liew, Lee and Honda on the trip, made the experience extra valuable. Timm arrived at SCSU after completing a year on an exchange program in Brazil. Although she entered college with high hopes of being involved with many cultural organizations, once she arrived she found it challenging to know how to integrate herself. This trip gave her the opportunity to rethink those challenges.
"Now when I open my geography book and see Malaysia, it means something to me because it's more personalized," Timm said. "It's most comfortable for people to find groups that don't differ from them, but when it comes down to it there's really nothing intimidating about learning new things and getting to know new people."
Throughout the week, the women worked most closely with the maintenance workers. Although the students took pride in the various neighborhood projects they worked on, they gained the most from the conversations they held as they worked.
"The time we spent with Carlos, Eric, Salvador and Lorenzo (the four maintenance and construction workers at the project) was the most valuable, because we learned so much from each other and the amount of respect we had for each other was so mutual," Timm said.
Twenty-year-old Carlos Renteria, an Americorps worker at the project who worked with SCSU students for the second year in a row was equally pleased about having the opportunity to work with the group.
"It's not all the time that I can meet new people, learn different languages, and try new kinds of food," Renteria said. "Even though we'd love to go, it's hard for us to go out and visit other states, so it's nice when people can come here to visit us and work with us."
Sharon K. Sobotta can be reached at: [email protected]
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