“After completing another week in Guatemala, I have come to the conclusion that I like living here very much,” wrote Malachi Cornelius on EMU’s intercultural blog.
Cornelius, a sophomore, was one of 17 students from EMU who participated in the spring semester intercultural trip to Guatemala and Mexico. Professor Wendell Shank, who teaches Spanish and linguistics, and Liz Miller, from Intercultural Programs, led the group in exploring history, culture, and language within the context of colonization. They spent eight weeks living with host families in Guatemala City, followed by some free travel time, and then two weeks of community learning in various Guatemalan organizations before traveling to Mexico City.
Zoe Clymer, a junior at EMU, described her two weeks of community service at a private clinic on the outskirts of Guatemala City as “eye-opening.” She shadowed various positions in the clinic, prompting her to consider her role in health care and how she wants to help people stay healthy. Several other students worked in a clinic in San Juan. Ivy Miller, a sophomore, helped take patients’ vitals and sorted through piles of medicine for the pharmacy. She described the two weeks as “nerve-racking at some points,” but also appreciated the opportunity to “be helping hands to the clinic staff and expand our knowledge one day at a time.”
Another group of students worked with the Community Cloud Forest Conservation, an organization that teaches leadership skills and environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Nathan Miller, a junior, reported that he and other students helped harvest vegetables, prepare soil at the tree nursery, and cook meals for the group, all while being surrounded by a beautiful landscape.
Besides community service, students spent the semester learning about migration, economics, human rights, health and education systems, and Mayan history and culture. They visited museums, refugee shelters, schools, and nonprofit organizations, but also got to relax at the ocean, take hikes, and explore volcanoes.
Caleb Metzler said he’s not sure how to compare his level of learning from this past semester with an ordinary one on campus. “While I haven’t been sitting in a classroom for three to six hours every day cranking out scholarly papers until my hands feel numb, I’ve had opportunities to learn every time I leave the confines of wherever we are staying,” the EMU junior said. “It’s almost as if this semester has been a test-run on what life is like, and I feel as though I’ve learned quite a lot about what I want for my future.”
Metzler, a triple major, is still thinking about what he wants to do after graduation. Several key experiences on this intercultural trip made him say, “Hey, I think I could enjoy doing this for my career.” These experiences included a presentation from a Guatemalan sociologist, a conversation about legal advocacy surrounding environmental health, and a volunteer experience at a migrant house in Mexico City.
Students on the intercultural trip sometimes felt overwhelmed with their immersion in a different language, but Spanish classes and placement with host families boosted their language skills. Still, with 22 indigenous Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala, students found themselves in situations where they couldn’t understand the language people around them were speaking. Malia Bauman, a sophomore, worked with the organization ANADESA in an area that spoke Tz’utujil; she said it was sometimes difficult to find her place since she didn’t know the language. But she still appreciated hearing their native language since it “helped me see authentic interactions between my family, teachers, students, and community.”
Similarly, Clymer reported that even though it was challenging to express herself in Spanish, one of her highlights from the trip was living with host families “because I got to form meaningful connections with people that live very differently from me.”
Students on the trip included Malia Bauman, Noah Buckwalter, Zoe Clymer, Malachi Cornelius, Lily Gusler, Claire Hurst, Emae Klompenhouwer, Esme Martin, Caleb Metzler, Ivy Miller, Nathan Miller, Samuel Myers, Kaylin Ozuna, Rose Short, Payton Simmons, Sarah Wheeler, and Amanda Yoder.
Members of the group shared their experiences and stories from the trip at Convocation on Wednesday, April 30. Watch a recording of their presentation here.
Delightful to see these life-changing experiences are still part of the education at EMU. I led 3 of these semesters to Guatemala (and Mexico) and can attest to how these experiences impacted my students’ lives.