Dr. Erica Davila traveled to Guatemala for a service learning trip in January 2011 with students Amanda Edgar, Erika Weber, Cassandra Etienne ’11, and Amy Roberts ’12 and Amanda Weicksel ’12, as well as Elizabeth Gluck ’11, an alumna of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program. Alyssa Jerson, an Arcadia alumna who majored in Spanish and earned an ESL certificate, joined the group to assist with translating.

The students and Davila visited rural schools in Zacapa, Guatelama, including Peublo Modelo and Rayitos de Luzand, and focused on providing teacher workshops that dealth with leveling books. The experience also included opportunies for a mutual exchange of teaching practices among participants from both cultures. Partial funding for the program came from Arcadia’s Office of International Affairs, and plans are in the works to repeat the experience next summer with an accompanying 2-credit course.