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Students to spend spring break helping in Central America
While some students will spend their Reading Week drinking margaritas and lying on the beach, 10 Ryerson students will use the time to give a helping hand in Panama as part of a program called Alternative Spring Break.
Over 10 days, the students will lead sustainable ecotourism workshops with key community members and encourage Panamanians to use local resources to their advantage.
The group will leave Toronto Friday morning and reach their final destination, Silico Creek, Panama, on Saturday. It’s a small, indigenous community, with only 200 members.
“Originally, they relied a lot on the fishing industry, seafood and other food they used to catch, but those resources have started to deplete, so they’ve had to find other means of income,” said fourth-year early childhood education student Lisa Howey-Louter, one of the Alternative Spring Break organizers.
Today, people in Panama are looking to the tourism industry to ensure their livelihoods. Panama’s climate and location gives it the potential to become a popular tourist destination.
In preparation for the trip, the students have taken Spanish classes and workshops on culture shock, privilege, gender equality and addressing biases.
“I think we’re going for a learning experience, we’re going to be really immersed in a new culture,” Howey-Louter said.
But Howey-Louter is ready to face the reality of life in Central America. The seasoned traveller said she was disappointed with her experience at an all-inclusive resort in Cuba this past December.
“I was at this resort where everyone was getting drunk and getting baked. I was bored and I was like, ‘This isn’t real life . . . This is so fake, it just isn’t me.’ It’s people going to a country and ignoring all of the different issues outside the resort,” she said.
Breanna Purdie, also a fourth-year early childhood education student and one of the program’s organizers, said she had a similar experience.
“It didn’t really interest me,” she said. “I felt like it was kind of a waste of time. I felt like I could have been doing something better with my time.”
Howey-Louter, Purdie and fellow fourth-year early childhood education student and organizer, Shari Nigli, chose the seven other members of this year’s team after narrowing the field from 60 applications. Interviewees faced a judging panel made up of the three student organizers, history professor and team adviser Arne Kislenko, and a representative from Youth Challenge International.
Once the team was finalized in September, fundraising began. They pulled in $25,000 to cover their costs through weekly bake sales, movie and bingo nights, raffles and online petitioning.
Support from the Ryerson community was also essential.
The team put on presentations to obtain funding from various Ryerson bigwigs, including the vice-presidents of academics and research and innovation, and the Projects Funding Allocation Committee for Students, to name a few.
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