LearnServe Trips
LearnServe Paraguay '06
A LearnServe Trip is a life-changing experience. It’s not meant to be a “study abroad” or a “two-week tour.” It’s active, engaging, and cooperative—both between students and teacher and with in-country locals. It’s rigorous—intellectually, culturally, and physically. It’s like a mini-Peace Corps, designed for high school teacher-student teams from the DC region.
These experiences transform the individuals and the schools they represent. Led by experienced educators, these experiences grant insight into regions of the world struggling with pressing problems like HIV/AIDS, poverty, and education. Preparation includes cultural exposure and prepares participants for their work with communities and other NGOs. Teachers learn as much as their students, and both discover what a school and can do to bring lasting, positive change to a community, and to raise awareness at home.
It was the most worthwhile experience of my life.
CoCo, a teacher at Anacostia High School, on LSZ ‘08
A gift of transport
Learn By Serving
Each LearnServe Trip has an important service component. For example, LearnServe Zambia ‘09 worked with World Bicycle Relief to build and bring bikes to rural healthcare workers in communities ravaged by HIV/AIDS. Over the course of a few days, LSZ participants came to understand not just the problem of AIDS in Africa, but to see first-hand how a concerted effort is making a difference in people’s lives.
2009 Schedule
Next summer LSI will conduct trips to Paraguay (LSP) and Zambia (LSZ), spending 2.5 weeks in-country. Training for the late June/early July trips begins in February. Meetings happen once per month on Sunday afternoons. The school recruitment process occurs in November/December, and school teams of teachers (1-2) and students (1-3) are selected in January.
To learn more about the details of the trips, including dates and costs, please:
- Visit the country specific pages for Paraguay or Zambia
- Read first-hand accounts of the LearnServe Trips experience on the team blogs of Zambia ‘08 and Paraguay ‘08
- Read the conditions for participation, which outlines the requirements of students, their teachers, and their schools
- Get involved by contacting us at trips@learn-serve.org.
There simply is no way to really understand another way of life besides experiencing it yourself… Over the past year or so I’ve become more globally oriented. I’m on the global awareness committee at my school, I’ve led Darfur initiatives, but there has always been something missing… the people of Paraguay have filled that gap. They are a voice I can understand. And while I don’t know that I will ever fully comprehend poverty, I can understand the wasting of potential.
Isabel, a student at Holton-Arms, on LSP ‘07
