I traveled to Paraguay in 2017 with LearnServe Abroad, an experience that undeniably I will never forget. We did a homestay in Tobati for a week, and painted a huge mural for the daycare that provides free services for children whose parents could not afford paying for school. We planted trees because the community was telling us about the deforestation that they have.
I learned Guarani, Paraguay’s indigenous language. I also experienced the city life and the rural life of living in Paraguay. As we lived with the families, we did culture exchange and learned about the indigenous population and how they are taught Guarani at home but Spanish at school. I was educated about the history of Paraguay and its wars with Brazil and Argentina. I had the opportunity to experience in person connecting, so the impact was very emotional and eye opening when it came time for us to return home. Changed the way I looked at my problems and privilege, which pushed me through to LearnServe Fellows.
Although I graduated from the LearnServe Fellows program in 2019, I was still able to stay in touch. This year, I was asked to participate as a judge in the Fellows virtual culminating pitch contest. The dedication and inspiration that the youth bring to the world is beyond life changing. If the LearnServe Fellows’ motivation and ventures don’t encourage you, maybe you need to answer the same question they do: what pisses you off? That might spark something for you too.
Now a season later, I’m 1 of 3 summer interns for LearnServe’s virtual exchange program with Zambia. Because of Covid-19, I was not able to physically step foot in Zambia, but I was able to Zoom there with the quickness of the internet.
And I was a little concerned about the virtual program. I questioned, how are the kids going to stay interested? How are they going to interact? Are they gonna show their faces to show that they are actively present? Are they going to stay mute the entire time? These worries were there especially because LearnServe has not had the pleasure of experiencing virtual traveling before. Connecting with the youth is important because everyone can identify a problem, but a problem comes with obstacles. And if there’s no one there to keep them striving and motivated then some would find no need to stay in the program.
Covid-19 only prevented physical traveling, not virtual traveling, and my cohort family can agree with me on that statement. Ryan and my cohort were known as The Influencers, it consisted of 4 Zambian students and 4 students from the United States. They all had two things in common; social change was a necessity within their community and the virtual abroad Zoom was a first-time experience collectively.
The importance of that is to say no one knew or could compare the outcome of this program to any other virtual abroad experience because neither group had gone through it. Therefore LearnServe was able to pivot from this new opportunity that technology provided them with becoming an online international program. LearnServe gave students the platform to say how they felt about the things that had pissed them off without negative connotations about their right to expression. I loved that the students in my cohort did not hesitate to give multiple things that they found to be a problem in their community, country, and even globally.
The students were able to connect with each other on similarities that each country shared when it came to oppression of Black and Brown communities, racism, global warming, and waste. Although there were also differences that caused each country to have the opportunity to educate one another. Despite some discomfort, we strive to put students in the “Yellow Zone.” This is a place where the youth are pushed to the point where they’re uncomfortable but in a good way. It’s a technique that’s very useful when it comes to allowing the youth to teach and enlighten one another on certain topics.
Their problems vaguely listed were recycling, racism, effective communication, sexual and reproductive health, motivating mentors, education, food desert awareness, and changing school policies. These were the main focus of the students’ ventures in Ryan and my cohort. Within a month they were able to identify not only what pisses them off but the commonality of how all these problems can be tackled with the help of learning about social entrepreneurship. Mind blown was my first thought because the dedication and action that came from the past couple of weeks allows us to understand that even with a global pandemic going the students did not stop exploring their options.
Meetings were from 10am – 11:30 am and 16:00pm – 17:30pm Zambia time. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday the students learned about social entrepreneurship, social change/impact, and Zambian and American culture. These lessons were needed in order for the students to be able to critically think about their MVPs (minimum viable products) before applying the lessons they learned to their pitches and ventures.
A quote from Ethel, a Zambian student who said “ LearnServe is helping me learn more about myself, my country, and the American people, and I am loving it.” The determination that the youth show while going through this summer virtual abroad program is beyond inspiring to the world and the generations to come about promoting and creating change.
The impact that students were able to have was eye opening because limitations were present and they were still able to reach out and network. Surrounding opportunities could help continue to push them to work on their ventures. The complexity of their problems and trying to come up with possible solutions exemplifies their commitment and passion.
They were able to accomplish the LearnServe virtual abroad program for many reasons. Education has no age, and the students who participated in this summer virtual abroad program showed me that. Guest speakers joined who participated within LearnServe when they were our age. They showed the youth that your venture can last for the rest of your life, and that was motivating. For some change can be hard and scary. But when there are people like you identifying ways to bring social change, the doubts like “this is too hard for me to do” can simply fade away. Inspiration from others can keep the passion going within.
COVID-19 couldn’t stop the students from bringing about the change they want to see.
I was able to interview and ask some students “what was something you wished LearnServe did to better improve for future virtual programs?” The most common answers were to provide more time during the group meetings and extend the program for longer than a month’s time. They wanted more time to continue to work on their ventures, which pushes my theory that their commitment was out of this world, astounding!
LearnServe set the time for the Zoom, but the youth set the tone. Despite the fact that there’s a global pandemic going on, the youths’ determination and dedication to the program showed that there was a connection made through the screen and created a Zoom family!
Jayme’ Mims
LearnServe Summer Global Fellowship Intern 2020
LearnServe Fellows 2019
LearnServe Paraguay 2017
Seeing Social Innovation, 2017