By Julia Hess '15
Nine Siena students recently had the experience of a lifetime in South Africa as part of the Global Service Internship program through Siena's Office of Academic Community Engagement. The students spent five weeks living among 250 children, teaching them important lessons in and out of the classroom.
Two of the students, Bonner Service Leaders Kelly Finn '16 and Kate Bender '16, were inspired to participate because of the amazing things they had heard about the country and the opportunity to work at the Bothshabelo orphanage with Peacework International, an organization that plans and hosts sustainable international service trips for college students.
"I am hoping to devote my life to combating the injustice that goes on in our world, from issues of race, discrimination, economic inequality to gender inequality," said Finn. "Traveling to South Africa was a great way of learning about more of these injustices and to have a chance to make a difference in a community that is plagued with injustice all around them."
The Siena students began each day at five o'clock in the morning, helping the South African students get ready for school. The rest of the day included providing classroom support, teaching subjects such as English, math and science as well as engaging the children outdoors with projects like turning an unused field into a vegetable garden.
Each of the nine students was required to work on a larger project aimed at benefiting Bothshabelo long after their five weeks were over. For instance, Bender worked to implement a green-dollar currency for the village and orphanage to establish a basic economy. She also developed a chart of possible jobs that local people could partake in to earn wages.
"These experiences allow us to see how our degrees can truly help make the world a better place, one community at a time. We are blessed with the opportunitiy to receive the education of a lifetime, so why not spread what we have learned," said Bender.
Finn conducted a village census after creating a map of the local area to be used by the local police and fire department. She met with about 50 households while working on her project, and saw the opportunity to learn about the community and culture as an eye-opening experience.
"This project taught me so much about community building and really organizing a community from the groud up, which is going to be useful for my future career in non-profit related work," said Finn.
Both Finn and Bender plan to keep in contact with the people that they met in South Africa. Finn says that the group will Skype with the children from Bothshabelo as often as possible and Bender plans to return after she graduates to serve the community once again.
