Global Service
Buddy UP!
The Buddy Up! Program, located at High Plain Elementary in Andover, is an after school program to help ELL (English) students with their homework, making friendships, and transitioning to the school and the United States.
I first began volunteering at the program from January to June of 2017. As the oldest student volunteer, I had multiple responsibilities. I help facilitate the program, including taking attendance and inputting student data as well as forming relationships with the children. I was able to really connect with a few of the 5th grade students, helping them with their homework, playing board games with them, and organizing and participating in outside games with them. One of the most interesting kids that I met at the program was a girl from Japan. She spoke little English, so to aid her in her school work, we had to use an online translator as well as actions to get our points across to each other. It was a really run experience, in which I learned how to communicate through a language barrier and see the diversity in our what I thought was a not very diverse town.
I decided to volunteer at Buddy Up once again from January to June 2018. During my second year back, my responsibilities changed from the last year. Along with another student my age as well as a teacher, I led the group with the youngest students (grades 1-2). There I facilitated the opening activities, the name game and What My Number, where each kid would say how their day was on a scale on 1-10 and why. I would also help the children with their homework as well as helping the director with the admin side when needed.
These two years at Buddy Up have really opened my eyes in terms of diversity in schools. In town where most people are Caucasian, most of my peers, especially in elementary school, have been Caucasian. In elementary school, I was one of five Indian kids in my grade. It is fascinating to see how ten years later, that same elementary school has so much more diversity.
I love the fact that my participation in the program plays a tiny role in the big picture: to ensure that every child has an equal opportunity to succeed in their given situation. As English is considered the leading language of the world, it is essential for children here to be able to communicate effectively. To know that I am helping kids to communicate and form relationships with their peers whom they may not have been able to do otherwise due to a language barrier is really fulfilling.
Costa Rica Service Trip
Throughout my trip to Costa Rica, I aided in multiple service projects.
One of the projects was helping to build new toilet blocks and lay the foundation for an additional classroom at the San Rafael Elementary School in La Fortuna. These new facilities are for special education students. San Rafael recently had a large influx of student enrollment. With relatively few toilets for the children, it was essential to add facilities better suited to handle the amount of students as well as catering to the special education students. Our role was to mix cement and help the construction workers to lay it down. We also were responsible for cleaning up around the school and making sure everything was set for the students when they came back from their school break.
The next project we assisted on was the La Altura community saloon. The purpose of the saloon was to provide a community center and gathering place for those living in La Altura. It will also be used for community projects, promotion of cultural education, technical knowledge workshops, public fairs, and event to fundraise for future community project. Rustic has been supporting the building of the infrastructure for a couple of years already, so while we were there, we assisted with some of the last stages. One of our major contributions was tiling and grouting the floors. I directly assisted the lead constructer in laying down tiles and mixing cement. I also helped dig trenches and move rocks for the drainage system as well as using those rocks to form a staircase into the saloon.
We also did a fair amount of maintenance of trails at the Arenal Volcano National Park. We spent the day walking along the trails, digging trenches to stop the rain from water logging the soil as well as raking and brushing the paved trails for vistors.
The last service activity we did was the Language Exchange and Cultural Immersion program (LECI) at the Sonafluca Elementary School. In small groups, we came up with games to provide cross-cultural learning and enrichment for the local students as well as us. My group decided to play musical chairs with the students. We alternated between both American style music and Tico music. It was a really fun way to get to know the students and create bonds with them, even for a short while.
Alignment with UN Global Goals and Future
My service most closely aligns with Goal 6: Quality Education as my service involved educating and helping children. Being able to ensure that children who are learning English will be able to succeed in homework and creating friendships was a great experience. In the future, I hope to continue to work with children, especially young girls, to help them learn about female health and wellbeing to ensure that they are able to stay in school.
