The brand new and currently little-known Students Helping Honduras has come to the University with a mission of promoting educational opportunities for Honduran students.
After attending a national Students Helping Honduras leadership workshop during the summer and training to open up a chapter, third-year Nursing student and current group president Nicole Burkhardt brought the nonprofit to the University. With collegiate chapters all throughout the country, the chapters fundraise throughout the year and make trips during academic breaks to build schools in Honduras.
“We really believe education is the only way out of the cycle of poverty,” Burkhardt said. “Fifty percent of students in Honduras don’t make it through primary school. We focus on building elementary schools for them so they can get a basic knowledge foundation.”
The official mission of Students Helping Honduras is “Para los niños,” or “for the kids.” Honduran teachers, who often lack a schoolhouse, are commonly seen teaching in alternate locations not fit for a standard classroom setting.
“These kids really want to learn,” said second-year College student Jacqueline Coakley, treasurer of the group. “There are times when they’re going to school in bars because they don’t have real schools. It’s just unbelievable the lengths [young students will] go to get an education. We’re just trying to make it that much easier for them.”
Burkhardt and Coakley both went on mission trips to Honduras in high school and knew immediately those opportunities would ignite lifelong passion.
“I saw a very tangible way I was making a difference in the world,” Burkhardt said. “I wanted that to continue. I knew when I boarded my flight [home] it wouldn’t be the last time I was there.”
Burkhardt returned to Honduras again the Spring Break of her second year, where she met leaders of Students Helping Honduras chapters who encouraged her to set up a chapter at the University. Coakley similarly jumped at the chance both to go back to Honduras herself and now hopes to help others make the trip.
“It’s such a life-changing experience,” Coakley said. “Once we finally get it off [our] feet, I don’t think there’s any way that it’ll go away. Once you go, you have to go back.”
This Winter Break, Students Helping Honduras will head down to Honduras with 18 volunteers for an eight-day service trip. Throughout the trip, volunteers will be involved in intensive construction work — mixing cement, digging trenches and laying cinder block.
“During the trip, there will be hundreds of kids from other colleges as well,” Burkhart said. “We’ll get to work side by side with them and bond with people from all over the country.”
Each day, volunteers will complement their manual labor with new cultural activities, ranging from salsa dancing lessons to playing soccer with community members to bartering at the local market.
“It’s really about being a part of something that’s bigger than yourself,” Burkhardt said. “The biggest part [of the experience] is being exposed to something outside of the U.S. — a totally different culture, custom and way of life — something that’s really hard for [most] college-educated, middle-class Americans to fathom.”
The trip to Honduras is also cheaper than most mission trips, totaling about $650 plus airfare, allowing volunteers to find a less expensive way to make a mark. With her initial goal of recruiting three new members for the trip, Burkhardt is more than pleased with a team of 18.
“I just hope it blossoms service,” Burkhardt said. “Even if they don’t necessarily want to go back to Honduras, [I hope they] just get that little spark that there’s a way they can change the world. I think that’s really important.”
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