Spring Break Service Trips - Compassion
Spring Break Service Trips - Compassion from Josh Williams
Spring Break Service Trips - Compassion

During my freshman and sophomore years at Iowa State I participated in volunteer spring break trips through the University Honors Program. As a freshman I traveled to Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico. We spent the entire week working with a poor, rural school system to help them improve their school building by building on an addition. As a sophomore, I traveled to Punta Gorda, Belize. This time around I served as a peer leader, assisting the program coordinators with preparing students for the trip. In Belize we worked on multiple projects. We assisted in a riverside environment clean-up effort, building a new bathroom system for a local school, performing sustainable landscaping for a local small business, and improving a playground and park area. These trips are great examples of compassionate creativity because we chose to spend our spring break going out of our comfort zones to help others. During these trips we also discovered and applied our individual strengths.

In Oaxaca City, Mexico our group had the opportunity to contribute to some (legal) street art. My design includes the outline of my home state Minnesota and the outline of the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
My traveling buddy Bob and I with our host for the week Lorena. Lorena and I communicated mainly in Spanish because Bob had no Spanish experience and Lorena wasn't very experienced with English.
The group I traveled to Oaxaca with was a diverse group. Prior to the trip we did not get to know each other very well because we only met once a week. But once we touched down in Mexico we quickly got acquainted and all become good friends. Group members included Catherine Glidden, Keyli Ire, Jenny English, Shalyn G, Emily Hansen, Annette White, Bob Ma, Laurie Smith, Dawn Bratsch-Prince and myself.
One of the most rewarding parts of our trip to Oaxaca was interacting with the children who attended the school we were working at. They loved to have their pictures taken and to take pictures themselves.
The fellas of Oaxaca.
My second trip was to Belize. Similar to my Mexico trip, we didn't really get to know one another until we were actually on the trip. Then we quickly became a tight-knit group. Group members included: Jayme Elizabeth, David Harper, Chloe Ward, Kristina Ward, Sarah Miller, Olivia Palmer, Claire Yetley, Nick J, Jill Harms, Laurie Smith, and myself.
Using the scariest ladder I have ever seen, I helped a local school repaint their restroom facilities. The ladder was made of scrap lumber with a single nail holding each side of each rung to the vertical supports. I was the only one of our group willing to climb it. I requested ground support, though.
Our group also helped a local school build a new septic tank to improve their restroom facilities. I became a mason apprentice and learned all the tricks to laying and sealing concrete blocks.
We managed to find some time for fun during our trip. We invited a local Belizean music group to teach us about local music and dance. Our home away from home quickly turned to a dance floor putting me outside of my comfort zone, but it turned out to be a blast.
We also snook in some drum practice.
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Spring Break Service Trips - Compassion

During my freshman and sophomore years at Iowa State I participated in volunteer spring break trips through the University Honors Program. As a freshman I traveled to Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico. We spent the entire week working with a poor, rural school system to help them improve their school building by building on an addition. As a sophomore, I traveled to Punta Gorda, Belize. This time around I served as a peer leader, assisting the program coordinators with preparing students for the trip. In Belize we worked on multiple projects. We assisted in a riverside environment clean-up effort, building a new bathroom system for a local school, performing sustainable landscaping for a local small business, and improving a playground and park area. These trips are great examples of compassionate creativity because we chose to spend our spring break going out of our comfort zones to help others. During these trips we also discovered and applied our individual strengths.

Josh Williams
Ames, IA