When junior Zaki Raheem was a junior in high school, he took a trip that changed how he viewed the world. That trip was a community service program in Nicaragua, and this year, Raheem, junior Nathan Machida, and junior Jeanette Bailey are working to give other students the same opportunities - but not just on vacations. The three students have been given the green light to bring BRIDGES, a service program in Nicaragua, to campus.
Next year, with help from the Bridges to Community organization, 15 students and the three leaders will participate in a semester-long Experimental College class that culminates with a trip to Nicaragua. During the trip the students will assist in building schools and other facilities for a rural farming village, and will have the opportunity to address other Tufts students about the experience upon their return. According to Raheem, the idea to do global community service has been well received by the University.
"I would say that the support has been great," he said. "I mean, we have had to do a bit of leg work to try to get [the UCCPS, the Ex College Board, and the Institute for Global Leadership] to help us out, but it is great to be getting so much encouragement from staff and administration."
Sherman Teichman, the Director of the Institute of Global Leadership and Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship, endorses the program's goals and is serving as the group's Ex College advisor.
"BRIDGES is a powerful opportunity to immerse yourself in the global enterprise of meaningful, active citizenship and thoughtful, engaged service," Teichman said in a press release.
The three student organizers said they've been impressed by the student response as well. They hope that enthusiasm for the program in its first year will lead to it becoming a staple of the curriculum.
"It's going to be a very difficult application process when we have to select our participants," Machida said. According to Raheem, nearly 40 students attended the General Interest meeting for BRIDGES, and at least 15 other students have since expressed interest in participating in the program.
While BRIDGES bears some similarities to LCS's Volunteer Vacation (VV), its organizers claim the program's international orientation makes it significantly different from the highly successful VV. Both Raheem and Machida participated in VV and said that Bridges will be different.
"The VV program is absolutely amazing," Machida said. "There really is no better alternative to experiential learning." While VV is a domestic program, he said, BRIDGES involves a trip to Nicaragua; moreover, the former does not involve taking a class.
"I think LCS's programs are great, but with international relations being such a popular major and volunteerism being so predominant, I think that the opportunity for Tufts kids to engage in international volunteerism is needed," Raheem said.
Machida credited LCS as being a major springboard for his interests in active citizenship and community service.
"Being an IR major, I naturally have an interest in putting things in an international perspective," he said. "BRIDGES is my first attempt to step back and really look at active citizenship on a global level."
Tufts already has at least one international volunteer program available for students - the Hillel Alternative Spring Break trip to El Salvador, now in its second year. Last week six Tufts students, along with about forty students from other universities, worked with a grassroots organization in a rural town on agricultural and community development efforts. Unlike BRIDGES, the Hillel-run program was student-led and not a class.
Like Machida, freshman Adina Allen was looking for a spring break experience that coincided with her academic interests and participated in the Hillel Alternative Spring Break trip. "The project was sustainable development, which I'd like to do in the future," said Allen, who plans to major in environmental studies and anthropology.
According to the BRIDGES organizers, a typical day in Nicaragua will prove physically demanding. Raheem anticipates that participants will begin their days with breakfast at 7 a.m., followed by work with some Nicaraguan students on either a new classroom or a storage facility. According to Raheem, this construction generally involves mixing cement, laying brick, and taking measurements all morning. After an afternoon of touring the area, the organizers hope to bring the participants back together to discuss social and political issues, as well as global concerns with Nicaraguans.
In the months to come, the student organizers plan to continue their work to create a program that accomplishes two main goals - to promote discussion of the different social challenges in the US and in other countries and to provide the Tufts community with a first-hand experience of these problems facing a developing nation.
"The point is not to go, build something, and then return feeling content," Bailey said. "The idea is to return with the knowledge that you have to do more - that the trip was only the beginning."
