Education and Mentors

Education and Mentors:  the two things people all around the world need in order to move out of poverty. With these projects, I am able to do both!  This kind of work cannot be easily quantified in numbers due to so many uncontrollable variables and progress is much slower than any of us would like, but it can be seen.  Between 2008-2010, I observed, assisted and modeled for the teachers.  It wasn’t until 2011 that I began to see the improvements, but they were there.  Each trip since then has reaffirmed my passion for the teachers and the kids!  

Giving Juan a "high five" after matching 1-5 on Math-U-See Blocks

This week, the mentors for the school were varied:  two successful independent deaf adults (Jonathan and Johanna), a hearing peer (Lydia), a professor in deaf education (myself), and Nicaraguan young adults (Rotaract volunteers).  Reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", playing "Around the World" for math review and buying a globe to study the continents were just some of the things we did this week. It was so hard to leave because the students were enjoying learning this week and we were simply loving them.

Introducing Geography-- so many didn't know there was a world outside of Nicaragua

-- Julie Delkamiller