celebratelanguages.com/nica2008

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WEAVER H.S. STUDENTS IN NICARAGUA

SUMMER 2008

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Hartford’s North End students, returned to Hartford, CT on July 4th
following their completion of a 10-day World Leadership Training
Program in Nicaragua. The 10 students, along with two Weaver High
School teachers, successfully completed their leadership training
program on the Nicaraguan island of Ometepe, a volcanic island in
the middle of the world’s largest tropical lake. The program
challenged them to provide community service in the form of
building hand-washing stations for elementary schools on Ometepe
Island, while also interacting with local peoples, exploring local
landmarks, and immersing themselves in local language and
culture.

The mission of the World Leadership School is to unite young
people around the world’s most pressing problems and empower
them to become leaders. The WLS encourages schools to move
beyond short-term trips and form a long-term service learning
program with their overseas community. These programs touch the
entire school community, both here in the U.S. and overseas, and
maximize global education opportunities.

While experiencing a language and a culture vastly different from
that which they experience everyday in Hartford, the students also
found themselves experiencing living conditions quite unlike those
they have grown accustomed to in their own homes. Often times
living in the middle of the Nicaraguan jungle, the students
experienced life without hot water, open-air sleeping quarters,
rustic bathrooms, and what all students considered an
"abnormality" - a lack of meat; all of which were unordinary and
often struggling circumstances for Hartford’s students, but a
common way of life for the local population.

“As I contemplate all that our 10 Weaver High School students
have accomplished, I take a bow in their honor. I could not be
prouder of them. In spite of the initial "bumpy ride," and at times
seemingly endless journey from one place to the next, or from one
"Oh-my-God" to the next, my students have gained a wealth of
valuable life lessons from life, living and coping in Nicaragua. This
is a DREAM TEAM of Hartford´s and Connecticut´s future leaders.
Their work, their contributions and the joyous moments in cultural
exchanges with local children will be forever etched in stone, in
their minds and lives, and in the lives of each of the local people
they have touched with their acts of selfless service.

Congratulations, and thank you to Shekera, Sahnique, Dominique,
Antecia, Shane, Joshua, Jomal, Emanuel, Errol and Wendell!”
says Richard de Meij passionately, founder and faculty advisor
of the after-school “Celebrate Languages Culture Club” at Weaver
High School & Hartford Public High School.