When the call came last year for volunteers to help out at an alternative community school in Cofradia, Cortes, Honduras, four Hamilton students stepped up and organized a week-long international service trip. This year seven students are carrying on the tradition with another week-long trip to San Jeronimo Bilingual School (SJBS) during Hamilton's spring break, March 18-25. Lauren Hayden '07, Lauren Miklos '07, Diana Gaydusek '07, Jessica Mariglio '07, Julie Young '07, Kenji Tabery '07 and Julia Daly '08 will work closely with the community in Cofradia to enrich SJBS. The presence of Hamilton College students will provide Honduran students with positive role models and new perspectives.
Public education in Honduras is notoriously bad, with under-resourced teachers serving classes of 40-100 students. Due to poor working conditions and irregular paychecks, public school teachers are often on strike for weeks at a time. As a result, alternative schooling options are a necessity.
San Jeronimo Bilingual School is an alternative community school serving over 180 Pre-K to 9th grade students and families in the community of Cofradía, Cortés, Honduras. A small parents' association founded San Jeronimo in 2004 and maintains responsibility for operating the school - including SJBS's basic funding and growth decisions.
BECA (Bilingual Education for Central America) is a U.S. based 501(c)(3) non-profit that supports San Jeronimo by recruiting and supporting a qualified group of volunteer teachers. BECA also provides scholarships for approximately one-third of San Jeronimo's students. As a result of this collaboration, the wealth distribution at the school is representative of the wealth distribution in the Cofradía area. Cofradía wealthy (relatively speaking) and poor are learning and playing together at the school, promoting long-term understanding and community. BECA was founded by another Hamilton alumna, Jaime Tackett Koppel '98, and alumni Matt Thornton '98 and Lauren Fisher '05 were two of the school's original volunteers.
Teachers at the school function with very few resources and considerable ingenuity. They have no classroom budget, no class sets of textbooks, and no shortage of eager children. Donations of school supplies are brought down or sent down periodically from the United States, and BECA is working with the school toward a model of sustainability that will guarantee the school's long-term success.
San Jeronimo is currently sustained through the hard work of the parents and volunteers and the support of donations.
There are numerous projects on San Jeronimo's "to do" list that, when completed, will make a big difference in the quality of the educational experience. Among projects for the Hamilton students are starting a school newspaper for San Jeronimo, planting in a new school garden with the children, helping with the construction of a playground for the younger students, or recording brief shorts of the students and/or teachers for a podcast.
San Jeronimo also needs volunteers to work in the classroom as teacher's assistants, reading buddies and tutors. Capable, active, college students are often the most effective short-term volunteers as they are often able to make a positive, lasting impression on students. Building a legacy of Hamilton College students in Cofradia will enhance our own students' learning as well as the Honduran students' well into the future.
The trip is supported by the Kirkland Endowment.
--by Julia Daly '08
