Student Experience
Homepage
Success Feed
Fourteen BW students participated in a faculty-led study abroad program in Guatemala that united classroom learning with service.
According to Dr. Kelly Coble, who co-led the program alongside Dr. Javier Morales-Ortiz, the program was a course structured to provide access to the real-world examples of what is learned in class. The program was offered through the Dr. A.B. Bonds, Jr. and Georgianna Bonds Center for Global Exploration.
Students in the class traveled to Guatemala over spring break to work with Mission Guatemala, a BW partner organization that provides health and educational services to the town of Panajachel and surrounding communities.
Coble explained that students contribute meaningfully while also learning about the cultural, political and historical context of Guatemala.
A central component of this year's program was a student-led initiative developed by Berta Gashi '26, an international business and business administration double major who is involved in many organizations across campus.
As part of an international service project, Gashi organized a book donation drive that collected "a little bit over 1,100 books" in both Spanish and English. The initiative was supported by funding from a Women for BW grant, which helped fund the project's implementation.
The BW students participating in the service-learning trip contributed to the development of an early childhood reading program by constructing bookshelves and a learning space while in Guatemala. The project involved assembling, sanding and painting bookshelves and reading nooks intended to house the donated books and foster a better environment for learning.
Gashi emphasized the importance of access to reading materials in the region. Gashi stated that most interactions with books that children have are extremely limited. In class sizes of 30 to 60 students, there may only be five books among them.
"This project kind of gives them an opportunity to interact with books," said Gashi. "The newly established reading space is intended to provide children with greater access to books and encourage continued education beyond the typical sixth-grade level."
In addition to service work, students participated in cultural and historical exploration, including visits to Lake Atitlán, where Mission Guatemala is based, the surrounding region and the colonial capital of Antigua.
Coble stated that students really got to experience "the culture and the reality on the ground" of Guatemala through the program.
The service also contributed to a longer-term initiative by Mission Guatemala to expand its clinic to include a learning center, which now houses the donated books. The organization plans to continue developing the reading space and incorporate it into broader child-focused services.
Gashi described the project as a culmination of collaborative effort and credited community support as key to its success. She said she hopes to pursue similar projects after graduation as part of her goal to make a positive international impact.
This is an edited version of a story that originally appeared in The Exponent, BW's student newspaper, and used here with the permission of the newspaper and the author, Ryan Ferguson '29, staff writer for The Exponent.
