WFU students to spend holiday break in Honduras
While many of their peers will travel home for the holidays, 11 Wake Forest University students will spend part of their break in one of the poorest areas of Honduras. They will work to improve the quality of life there by assisting with construction projects.
The students’ journey to the Central American country is part of the Honduras Outreach Project and Exchange (HOPE) Scholars Program. The students and one leader will depart from Raleigh-Durham International Airport and will travel to the Agalta Valley, a remote mountainous region devastated by 1998’s Hurricane Mitch. Working beside the region’s residents, the students will help dig latrines, build additions to houses, repair roads and assist with other projects.
This is the fourth year that Wake Forest students have contributed to the project through assistance from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Fund for Leadership and Ethics. Participating students also support the program through fund-raising activities. Honduras Outreach, Inc., a private organization based in Decatur, Ga., coordinates the Wake Forest group’s journey. Kristin Zipple, a Wake Forest junior from Hattiesburg, Miss., is the student leader for this year’s trip. She also participated in the program last year.
“Going to Honduras and investing your time in the people’s lives puts everything into perspective about what’s truly important in life,” Zipple said. “The people we visited don’t have anything materially, just the clothes on their backs. But they have their family and friends, and that’s enough. They aren’t burdened by material wealth the way we are.”
This year’s Wake Forest group includes Madeleine Bayard of Wilmington, Del.; Ryan Estes from Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Chad Hembree of Newnan, Ga.; Lacey Shirk of Bloomington, Ill.; Meredith Katter of Sudbury, Mass.; Kathleen Kuhnert of North Wales, Pa.; Brian Kelly of Bedford, N.Y.; T.J. Martin of Augusta, Ga.; Scott Richards of Shreveport, La.; Kristin Wieneke of Plattsburgh, N.Y.; and Zipple.
To prepare for the trip, the Wake Forest group has met weekly since August. Various faculty members have led sessions on aspects of Honduran life and culture, conversational Spanish and other relevant topics.
The 2000 HOPE scholars have learned that the Agalta Valley is an extremely poor, undeveloped region. It has the highest infant mortality rate in all of Honduras. The average annual family income is $400 and there are no paved roads, plumbing and electricity services or medical infrastructure.
The group’s stay in Honduras will last from Jan. 5 to 15.
Categories: Experiential Learning, University Announcements
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