This winter break, Tufts students will travel to Nicaragua under the auspices of a new name and a nearly new benefactor.
The Institute for Global Leadership's (IGL) former program Tufts International Institute for Learning through Experience and Service (TIILES) has emerged as the new, improved, and renamed Building Understanding Through International Leadership and Development (BUILD) program, which will send Tufts students to Nicaragua over winter break.
Program participants will undergo preparations during the fall, embark on the student-led trip in January, and enroll in a student-taught Experimental College (Ex-College) class when they return in the spring.
"It's a very student-run, student-organized program," said Heather Barry, the Associate Director of the IGL.
BUILD participants will travel to the northernmost region of Nicaragua, spending most of their time in the rural community of Santa Rosa. This year's trip will be led by senior Sarah Licht and junior Bruni Hirsch.
Funding for the trip currently comes from the IGL, a Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service grant, and other fundraising endeavors.
According to Nancy Wilson, Director and Associate Dean of Tisch College, "We have a threeyear agreement to provide some support for them along with students from the [medical] school."
The Tufts School of Medicine uses part of the grant for its own trip every February to the same area. The upcoming trips for both programs will mark the second year of their use of this grant.
The program, now in its fourth year, held its informational meeting on Sept. 19. It is looking to enlist 10 participants who are committed to issues involving sustainable development and public health.
According to Licht, they hope to receive applications from a variety of age groups.
"We are looking for younger students who, though they may have less experience, could potentially continue leadership of the program in future years, as well as older, more experienced participants," she said.
Changes focus on extending the experience past the end of the trip itself, with the addition of the mandatory Ex-College course.
The course, entitled Sustainable Development and Public Health, will be taught by Licht and fellow senior Katherine Conway-Gaffney, both former TIILES participants. Conway-Gaffney taught the class last year, as well.
The course is required of all BUILD participants, but organizers are currently considering opening the class to students outside of the program.
A few interested students will later return to Nicaragua in the summer to live in the rural community and continue the project.
As a past participant in the TIILES program, Licht believes that the program "could definitely use some improvements, many of which have already been made."
When she joined the program her sophomore year, the project ended with the trip's return in January. She said she is happy "to see those improvements take shape" this year.
Though specifics of the program vary from year to year, Licht said that the major projects she worked on were based on improving local agriculture and building a school.
This year's trip will be primarily focused on local small farm development, she said.
The program works with an American organization called Bridges to Community, which leads similar service trips to Nicaragua.
"Bridges to Community works with a Nicaraguan university, Urracan, as well as the surrounding community," Conway-Gaffney said. "So we work with the University and community as well."
