Music in Nicaragua

It is hard to summarize just how transformative the YASC trip to Nicaragua was for our son and me.  I have tried to capture the experience in a video.  Check it out below -- and please do think about coming on a future Yale Alumni Service Corps trip.  They are wonderful experiences.

Service Corps Trip to Nicaragua

Just got back from the Yale Alumni Service Corps trip to Nicaragua. About 70 volunteers which included Yale alumni, friends, and current Yale students and faculty, heading to a small village called El Trohilo to work on a variety of projects.  Sponsored by the Yale Alumni Service Corps, the Yale Nursing School and our Nicaraguan partner, CEPAD, the trip had a number of projects.  A group of health care professionals ran a clinic that saw over 400 patients.  Andrew worked on a construction team that refurbished a community center.  A team of business consultants helped local entrepreneurs.   My son, Tyler, and I worked on the education team teaching piano.

I will share a bit more about our trip, sort of day by day (with a time delay), as I did when we went to the YASC trip to the Dominican Republic.

If you read nothing else, please know that these trips are life changing -- for the people we serve and those who go on the trips.  Please consider going on one.

The Diploma Divide

This weekend's New York Times has an interesting article about the Diploma Divide -- about how the gap between the access to college education is widening for rich and poor children.  As we start to plan for 2013, we are looking forward to tackling this sort of issue in the YASC trip to West Virginia.

Please think about making service a big part of 2013.

Happy Holidays!

Some past coverage of the trip to Nicaragua

Here is a post from the Nicaragua Dispatch that discusses that YASC trip to Nicaragua earlier this year.

Online ticket agency and Yale alums spent a week helping the impoverished community of El Castillo, Matagalpa

A helping hand: a team from Yale helps build a house in El Castillo (photo courtesy Crystal Astrachan)
By Viveca Woods / guest blogger 
March 22, 2012

SuperBoletería, a leader in the online ticket market for concerts, theater and sports, serving the Hispanic population in the United States and worldwide, last week sponsored a service trip to Nicaragua by the Yale Alumni Travel Service Corps. SuperBoletería’s corporate donation directly benefited a community in Nicaragua that is lacking most basic services.

The small and remote village of El Castillo is a vibrant community of 150 families in the northern department of Matagalpa. The community is in desperate need for clean water, medical care and educational opportunities.

Crystal Astrachan of SuperBoletería / Yale Alumn makes a new friend.

Residents of this town are eager to improve their lives, but lack the basic tools needed to access simple needs that are critical for the community to thrive.

Last week, volunteers from Yale Alumni Service Corps, together with the Council of Protestant Churches in Nicaragua, traveled to Castillo to build houses, improve education opportunities and install water filters in the community. All the efforts were designed to provide long-term benefits to the community.

Residents of El Castillo live in houses with dirt floors, and ceilings and walls made from corrugated sheets of tin or wood. Many don’t have access to clean drinking water.

The inhabitants currently used artesian wells and rainwater to drink, and have no nearby health services. The local schoolhouse provides students with education only to sixth grade, and residents walk for miles to get a college education or medical care.

Yale Alumni Service Corps (YASC) offers an innovative service opportunity for alumni, family and friends. YASC trips are based on the diverse talents and energies of our alumni volunteers to give critical services to communities in need.

The projects range from construction to medicine, education, athletics, small business consulting and more. These programs offer opportunities to work with local communities to enjoy a meaningful intercultural exchange and establish ties with amazing alumni who share a passion for service. Visit www.yaleservicetours.org to learn more.

2013 Trip to Ghana

Invites you to join us to serve in Yamoransa, Ghana, Africa August 1-11th, 2013 The Yale Alumni Service Corps invites you to join us on a truly inspiring service opportunity as we travel abroad to “give back.” From August 1 to 11 we return to see our friends in Yamoransa, Ghana, to serve this impoverished village and continue the great work begun last year.  Nana (Chief) Akwa II, village elder and leader of the community, has asked us to return so that we might, in his words, “again provide hope, inspiration, and motivation.”  We are grateful to be able to make a real difference. Last summer more than 150 alumni, family, and friends participated in this life changing service project. We need YOU for: Education and Arts: Teachers willing to share their interests and skills – music, drama, crafts, hobbies, as well as traditional subjects ‑ with primary and middle school Ghanaian children who never have the chance to learn anything beyond reading, writing and math. Whatever you want to teach, they want to learn! Medical Care: Doctors, nurses, PAs and interested lay people for this village with no clinic and in need of primary care and screening services. Business Development: Consultants to work with local micro-business owners – bakers, seamstresses, hairdressers, kenkey makers, and others ‑ to develop and grow their businesses and get more organized. Construction: Builders to help complete the community center, for which we laid the foundation last year. Public Health: Volunteers to conduct health education and awareness classes including aids prevention, insurance registration, sanitary and medical care guidance. College Mentoring: Mentors ‑ women especially ‑ to coach and counsel Ghanaian high school girls, to inspire and motivate them to apply to college. Sports: Athletes for coaching sports and organizing clinics. If you want to serve, we will find a volunteer opportunity for you. Alumni – and their friends and family ­ from all classes, graduate and professional schools are welcome. And there is no better gift you can give your children – ages 10 and older ‑ than working side by side with them to serve others. Last year more than 30 children were part of our service corps. They – and you – will learn on so many levels. This is a wonderful experience for families and individuals to change lives, including your own! While serving this village and its gracious and welcoming people you will experience Ghanaian culture beyond what any tourist would experience. We have limited accommodations for this adventure so please sign up soon! The cost is $2,250 exclusive of airfare to/from Accra. For more information, please visit us here or click here to register. First come, first served registration closes February 28th.

West Virginia 2013

Yale Alumni Service Corps

Announces the

 2013 First Domestic Service Trip to West Virginia

June 26th-June 30th, 2013

INSPIRE/EDUCATE/MOTIVATE

We are extremely excited to announce the first Yale Alumni Service Corps domestic service trip to West Virginia!!! On June 26th-June 30th, we will be traveling to Huntington & Montgomery, WV to work at Marshall University and West Virginia University Institute of Technology providing college counseling and writing coaching for high achieving low-income local students. These students live in an area that was formerly a strong mining community but has been depleted of jobs and opportunities for many years. Most of the students will be the first generation in their families to consider college so we need to help them have an unforgettable experience next summer and assist them to achieve their greatest potential for the future!!

 
College Summit sessions with volunteer coaches and studentsYASC will partner with College Summit, an organization founded by Yale alumni J.B. Schramm '86, which has established relationships with local schools in underserved areas of the Unites States to provide coaching and mentoring for students with the goal of increased enrollment rates at institutions of higher education. College Summit has been established in West Virginia since 2001 when they did their first test pilot program and since then they have touched the lives of over eight thousand students from twenty seven high schools. While working in a college setting, College Summit provides both college counseling and coaching in writing college essays along with activities in workshops that fosters student-leaders.

 
Coal transport train and river used for coal transport barges & power

Click below for the whole post

Far From Home, Briefly -- From the Yale Alumni Magazine

Check out the YAM article about the Yale Alumni Service Corps trip to Ghana. . . .

When the five buses roll into the Ghanaian town of Yamoransa, hundreds of children are waiting on the red dirt plaza in front of a low-slung concrete-block school building. The children bob and shout as 160 Yale volunteers climb off the buses and cautiously skirt the steep open sewer that separates the highway from the plaza. For five days in late July and early August, in this impoverished town on Africa’s Atlantic coast, this scene will repeat itself every morning: the volunteers plowing through the throng, the Ghanaian children reaching out for handshakes, saluting the visitors with high fives, and sometimes crowding around two ten-year-old volunteers to touch their long hair. (The Ghanaian schoolchildren have buzz cuts, boys and girls alike.)

Yale Alumni Magazine: Far From Home, Briefly (Nov/Dec 2012)