Ginsberg Center E-Newsletter

Spring/Summer 2009

2009 Pangea World Service Team Members Reflect on Their Experiences
By Kemba Mazloomian

Pangea World Service Team 2009 members (from left) Aesha Mustafa, Andrea King, Sun Young Yang, Lindsay Ewing, Nelson Cooper, Lindsey Ross, Rachel Franzblau, and Sabrina Wang. Photo courtesy of Aesha Mustafa.

For Aesha Mustafa, the value of teamwork hit home while she was standing at the edge of an overgrown field in rural Ecuador this summer.

She and the other 17 members of the Pangea World Service Team (PWST), a student-led Ginsberg Center program, were assigned to clear the grass and weeds.

"The grass was about two feet tall, thick and never ending," Mustafa said. "Although the job seemed impossible, we broke up into teams that tackled different tasks such as using a machete to cut the grass, collecting it, wheel-barrowing it to the compost pile and using a hoe to dig up the roots. When we saw each other losing morale in our assigned task, we switched in order to prevent losing our stride."

The group finished clearing the field in two days, a job that would have taken the farm's six residents a week to do on their own.

Through PWST, students plan and execute summer service projects in developing countries that address the host communities' specific needs as well as broader social issues like literacy and sustainable agriculture. This summer, the group spent four weeks in Ecuador, where they lived with families in rural communities while they participated in a reforestation project on an organic farm, tutored at local schools and volunteered at a children's hospital.

"I think most people would say the highlight was staying in the rural communities and working in the schools there," said Tracy Welch, Co-Director of SERVE, the Ginsberg Center's student-run umbrella program that includes PWST.

PWST was founded in 2003 fulfill a need for socially conscious, service-based international opportunities. Past projects have been located in Ghana, Nicaragua and Peru.

The entire program, from planning to execution, is intended to be educational and to ensure that the students' work benefits their host communities. Students are recruited early in the fall semester and are encouraged to attend training meetings every two weeks throughout the school year. Once the project begins, regular reflection meetings help to ensure that they are receiving the skills they need to be of use to their host communities. In addition to the work they are assigned, day-to-day life in a 200-person rural village can be an educational experience for PWST students. Mustafa said communicating almost exclusively in Spanish and living without amenities she was used to, such as indoor plumbing and refrigerators, was "enlightening."

"Though their intense immersive experience had its challenges, the students thrived," Welch said. "The students were rewarded with the richness of experiencing a taste of life the way it is lived in these remote Ecuadorian villages."

Ginsberg Center E-Newsletter

2009 Pangea World Service Team Members Reflect on Their Experiences By Kemba Mazloomian

Spring/Summer 2009 Table of Contents

2009 Pangea World Service Team Members Reflect on Their Experiences
By Kemba Mazloomian