Inly International – Where Learning Intersects with Service

Inly Assistant Head of School, Julie Kelly-Detwiler is participating in a service learning program in Guatemala June 23-July 6 with recent Inly graduates Nick Bartlett and Cole Vaillancourt through the program Los Ojos Abiertos. This experience is intended to be the first step towards Inly School developing an Alumni Service Learning Program which we plan to offer to our alumni next summer. While on her travels, Julie will be checking in with us to let us know about the work and the learning that the group is doing.

Tuesday morning, June 25, 2013

This is our group – already beginning to form as a community- as we leave our Hostel for Guatemala after two days of team building and educational activities in Boston. The group participating in the 2013 “Los Ojos Abiertos” which means “With Eyes Open” program, consists of two Inly graduating 8^th graders, Nick Bartlett and Cole Vaillancourt, Inly Assistant Head of School, Julie Kelly-Detwiler , 6 high school students from Sharon and Millford, Lauren Monroe, the Founder and Director of Worcester Think Tank, and the group leader, Roger Bourassa, founder and Director of Perduco and the Los Ojos Abiertos program.

This two-week experience is equal parts service and learning. The first week in country will be spent introducing the students to various ongoing development work in Guatemala to help them develop a more comprehensive understanding of the history, and current economic/political situation here. The second week will follow a set schedule and our time will be split between Antigua and Jocotenengo. We will spend our mornings improving our Spanish language skills at Proyecto Linguistico Maya in Antigua, and, in the afternoons, we will travel the short distance by local bus to Jocotenango, were our students will spend their afternoons at La Escuela Esperanza. Here, students will help with lunch and recess, teach English classes to kindergarteners, and work in pairs with a Guatemalan teen in an after school program to create an artistic project, or to solve an engineering challenge.

Our home base during our time in Guatemala is The Black Cat Inn in Antigua, Guatemala. The accommodations are modest but comfortable and our group occupies most rooms in the inn which lends a real community feel.