Service-learning program to Nicaragua begins
Summer program includes academic work and volunteer service
Wake Forest will begin offering a new program focusing on Central America this summer that will include a service-learning trip to Nicaragua. The deadline to apply for the program is April 1.
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The program will be held May 28-June 28. Students will spend the first week on campus taking two academic courses — "Social Enterprise Leadership in a Developing Country" and "The Writer and Society in Central America" — before leaving June 7 for a three-week stay in Managua, Nicaragua. There, students will work in nonprofit organizations and continue their class work. They will live with local families one weekend.
The "Social Enterprise Leadership" course (BUS 208) will be taught by Holly Brower ('83), an associate professor at the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy. Students will examine the challenges in leading sustainable social enterprises in a developing country.
The second course, "The Writer and Society in Central America" (HUM 216), will be taught by Associate Professor of Romance Languages Jane Albrecht. Students will study works by major Central American writers with special attention to their socio-historical contexts.
Among the organizations students will be volunteering in are:
- The Manna Health Project in La Chureca (The Managua City Dump);
- Tesoros de Dios, a private physical therapy and rehabilitation center that serves an underserved population;
- The Nehemiah Center, which facilitates spiritual, economic and social progress of local communities;
- Fundación Uno, a non-profit community-development organization;
- Project HOPE, an international organization that trains community health volunteers;
- Nica HOPE, which provides education and vocational training to marginalized communities; and
- The Children's Renutrition Center, an orphanage.
The program is open to all undergraduates, regardless of major. The cost is $2,800 (with scholarship funds available to subsidize up to $2,000) and six hours of summer school tuition. The program is supported by the Pro Humanitate Center, a Project of the Lilly Endowment, and the Office of International Studies.
For more information, contact Jane Albrecht (albrecht@wfu.edu) in Romance Languages at 758-5468 or Holly Brower (browerhh@wfu.edu) at 758-6174.
— Kerry M. King ('85)
Office of Creative Services
