Transforming Service
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Alternative Service Break trips prove mutually beneficial to NC State students.
By Tim Jones, Web Communication
Along what is likely the only paved road between the Santiago Airport and the Dominican Republic’s capitol city of Santo Domingo, cans, hubcaps, and an assortment of other trash litter the ground below the lush canopy of tropical trees. Tiny shacks cleverly constructed from a patchwork of rusted tin, rotten plywood and what can only be described as storm debris pepper the brilliant green landscape.
“Most of the students who come on these trips have never been exposed to this level of poverty,” said Mike Giancola, director of NC State’s Center for Student Leadership, Ethics & Public Service (CSLEPS). “The culture shock can be pretty intense for some.”
That’s where the transformation begins for many NC State students. Year after year, they forgo a recreational spring break to participate in one of the university’s week-long Alternative Service Break (ASB) programs, gaining exposure to cultures and experiences vastly different from the comforts of their American lives.
In Santo Domingo, the NC State ASB Habitat for Humanity team spent its first day touring the city, easing in to the week ahead. The gentle transition afforded students the opportunity to absorb some of the more mundane aspects of Dominican culture and make observations such as, “The ketchup tastes sooo different here.”
Fast-forward 48 hours, where hard manual labor on a Naguan job site steers the conversation far from condiments. Students struggle to communicate with Dominican laborers while they learn how to tie rebar, mix concrete and pour a roof. The home they work so hard to build is desperately needed, yet many in the United States would consider it insufficient. But for those in the impoverished community that NC State students have come to serve, the new structure will be more than enough.
“The people seem to not even notice what they’re missing – what we think they’re missing,” said junior Katie Skinner, adjusting her words to reflect her changing perspective. “They are completely content with the materials they have.
“They are happier than most people I see on day-to-day basis in North Carolina, and it’s refreshing to see people so happy and just content with what they have and not asking for more.”
A sense of contentment and an accompanying gratitude for things often taken for granted in America isn’t limited to beneficiaries of Habitat for Humanity—it’s a tenet of Dominican culture displayed by young and old alike that’s as instructional as it is admirable.
More than 100 miles away in the dusty town of Monte Cristi, another team of NC State students armed with cardboard cutouts and giant flash cards makes the 30-minute hike from Hogar la Esperanza de un Nino (an orphanage that’s part of Arizona non-profit Orphanage Outreach) to the Bella Vista School, where they try everything they can to teach Dominican school children a few English words. Throughout the excited chaos that often fills the classroom, the NC State students-turned-teachers watch as their young pupils display an infectious enthusiasm and embrace the opportunity to learn.
“Today in class, I was feeling really down about the education we are limited to giving these children, and I started to wonder if they really cared at all,” said junior and team leader Jessica Gil. “Then, in the afternoon class, three little girls got up from their desk and stood right in front of the board with their notebooks and pencils, copying down the English words we had written on the board.
“The little girls were so interested in learning how to say the colors in English that they wanted to be front and center.”
The chance to learn a few English words isn’t always grounds for excitement, but in a community where opportunities are few, nearly every student in each of the school’s four classrooms brims with anticipation, eager to participate and to learn.
In front of a captive audience assembled in the community center of a quiet little village in Monte Cristi, senior Jo Vargas and her team field question after question about simple hygiene, nutrition and anatomy from members of a community who rarely have access to any kind of health education. Few Dominicans pass up the chance to have their blood pressure checked and their blood sugar measured, waiting patiently in line for an opportunity to receive a welcomed checkup. The NC State team adeptly administers the simple tests using only a tiny fraction of the $130,000 worth of medical supplies CSLEPS brought to the Dominican Republic on behalf of a group of doctors with Flying Doctors, who will support a medical clinic in the weeks to come.
Just down the street, the other half of the ASB Pre-Health team does its best to teach school children about teeth brushing and healthy eating through the creative use of poster board teeth and Velcro-backed plaque. The schoolchildren watch attentively and begin to participate after a little encouragement from team members. Some concepts of the lesson remain foreign to those in a community struggling with more basic needs.
“We’re up there trying to talk to them about portion control and not eating too much red meat, but their answer to us is, ‘We eat meat whenever we are able to get it,’” freshman Rachel Humble said. “How can we even teach something like that when food isn’t always readily available?”
Other messages, however, get through loud and clear. After a fruitful day in the classroom, the NC State Pre-Health team joins the school children for recess. Above the usual raucous of outdoor play, the sound of delighted children singing their anatomy lessons in both Spanish and English fills the air. “Esta es mi cabeza. Esta es mi cabeza. This is my head. This is my head.” Their classroom choir director, NC State sophomore Victor Saxena, happily sings along. It’s clear that students learn just as much from those they teach.
Toward the end of the ASB week, many students found themselves reflecting on the countless lessons they’ve learned and sometimes reassessing their own priorities and values as they struggle with the realities of a culture so different from the one they know in the United States
“All my life I had helped a lot of people but until this trip, I don't believe I had ever served anyone,” reflects junior and Habitat team member Julie Stainback. “Serving to me is so much more powerful than helping because you are helping make a change in someone’s life, but not seeing yourself as having an advantage over them.
“On this trip, I believe I’ve received more than I gave in return,” she said. “For the first time in my life, I had this great moment of insight where I realized that no one was ‘better’ than someone else because of his or her color, culture, religion, or any other factor.
“I have been taught to treat people fairly and that everyone should have equal opportunities, but deep down there was a part of me that had always maintained some prejudice or bias,” Stainback said. “I now see how I can play an active role everyday in pursuing equality and the fair treatment for all groups.”
This year, CSLEPS sent 14 teams of NC State students on Alternative Service Break trips to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Belize and Guatemala in addition to American locales such as Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Louisiana, Alaska, New Mexico and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Student reflections from some of these ASB trips are available online.
“One of the primary objectives of the Alternative Service Break program is to give our students a deep understanding of privilege and the responsibilities that come with the privileges they have.” Giancola said. “Some students take the first step during the trip, for others it happens after they return. Our hope is that they will engage in a life of service.”
CSLEPS continues to expand its partnerships with communities around the world in order to provide its students with transformational service-learning experiences while collaborating to address pressing community needs and social justice issues. Its strategic plan is to develop 20 partnerships by 2010.