“My Veins Bleed Volunteerism” – FSU Students in Peru

Frostburg State University proved itself to be “One University. A World of Experiences” as it sent a group of students to Lima, Peru to volunteer over spring break.

As part of the special topics sociology class, Service Learning in Peru (SOCI 490), four Frostburg students and two alumni had the opportunity to travel abroad to volunteer in Peru.

The course was instructed by Victoria Gearhart, the director of the Center for International Education. Initially, she had planned to offer the trip through the Office of Civic Engagement similarly to the Alternative Spring Break opportunity. However, Dr. Robert Moore, the sociology department chair, and Dr. Kara Rogers Thomas, an associate professor in the department, pushed for Gearhart to build a class around her idea.

Once a student at Frostburg State, Gearhart credits the university for giving her so many experiences to volunteer abroad. She wants her students to have a similar experience while on campus. Gearhart noted that volunteering gives her a sense of “focusing on others, not herself.”

Gearhart was excited to create a class experience stemming from her passion of volunteering abroad. She has previous experience teaching sociology. The curricula of the once a week course centered around cultural anthropology. Students studied the Peruvian culture and development to prepare for what they would encounter during the trip. The goal was to be able to tie course content with what would be seen in Peru and intelligently process it. Dr. Rogers Thomas is the coordinator of the Cultural Anthropology minor and has an area of interest in the topic. She worked closely with Gearhart to create the course, saying it was, “such an honor to meet with her and talk with her.”

The financial aspect proved to be a bit of a challenge, Gearhart mentioned, as keeping the cost down was essential to getting the maximum number of students to participate in the trip. After searching through a variety of tour companies, she settled on International Volunteer HQ (IVHQ), as they could offer the best experience at the most affordable price. Established in 2007, IVHQ sends thousands of volunteers to over 40 destinations across the globe to become the leading volunteer company in the world. The company focuses on global awareness and cultural understanding.

Gearhart keeps in touch with alumni and mentioned the trip to Tori Modlin and Francesca Garland, two alumni who both studied abroad in their time at Frostburg. Neither went abroad to volunteer and jumped on the opportunity to go. Garland currently resides in Arizona and was “grateful for the experience.”

The night of Saturday, March 17, Gearhart, four FSU students, and two alumni landed at Jorge Chávez International Airport. After they landed, a Peruvian man picked them up from the airport to take them to the volunteer house they stayed at in Lima. The man spoke fluent Spanish and no English, initiating the language barrier from the moment they landed.

Gearhart said that two of the FSU students on the trip were on an exchange program – Sicheng Chen from China and Natuski Yamasaki from Japan. She said that her students witnessed globalization right outside of the airport, as the Peruvian man who had picked them up had traveled abroad to Japan and spoke Japanese, enabling Yamasaki to be the translator for the group. Gearhart noted that it was an amazing opportunity for these students, as they came to North America to study abroad to then also have the chance to go to South America to volunteer.

The group explored Lima, Peru’s largest city and capital, on Sunday before their volunteering experience began. The city is located in the central coastal part of the country overlooking the Pacific Ocean. One third of the population lives in Lima. The nation is home to the Amazon River and the Andes Mountains, allowing it to host one of the world’s greatest biodiversities. While the country is labeled as third-world, as many parts are overridden with poverty, Lima has the characteristics of a first-world country.

Jessica Smith, a senior business major, said, “in all honesty, I wasn’t sure what the community would be like. I was prepared for it to be a third-world country without running water and lots of homeless families. That wasn’t the case at all. The homes weren’t like what we’re used to seeing in America, but they had electricity, running water, and all the other basic amenities. What shocked me the most was that although they were a poorer community, they dressed with pride. They made sure their clothes and shoes were clean, their dress shirts and pants were starched. They cared very much about their appearance and presentation.”

On Monday, the group began their volunteer work. Their days began at 7 a.m. as they boarded the public bus and traveled an hour and half to their work site. The group worked for five hours before heading back to the volunteer house that hosted them. The volunteer house was run by a family of three generations who cooked, cleaned, and cared for the group while in Peru. The group stayed with other volunteers from around the world; Scotland, England, and Denmark were three of the other countries represented in the house.

The group worked in an area that had so many needs. For example, Gearhart noted that on their transit to site one day, the group saw a homeless man eating trash. She said it was a heartbreaking sight for the group and truly put things into perspective. While on site, the group’s primary job was volunteering with construction and renovation. The week prior to the Frostburg group’s arrival, another student group had worked at the same site. They laid the concrete at the house location and put the walls up. The Frostburg group was to prepare the walls for the roof and begin to help with the roof.

Gearhart gave credit to her group’s servant attitudes, which she believed “showed where their hearts are.” She praised their hard work, using junior Amanda Tracey as an example. Gearhart said that the group had to carry loads of wood down a dirt hill in which anyone could have easily fallen. Instead Tracey jumped right in, never complaining, just as the entire group had the length of the trip.

Smith said, “My favorite part of the trip was having the ability to selflessly give to a community in need. I spent five days focusing on the needs of others instead of focusing on what my own needs were. Another interesting part of the trip was being able to learn about a culture that’s much different from our own and finding ways to communicate with people who spoke a different language.”

Tears flowed as the group had to say goodbye and leave the country.

“It was simply beautiful to see the students understand the similarities and differences of the culture,” Gearhart said.

For more information on studying abroad, please visit: https://www.frostburg.edu/academics/study-abroad.php