Project Gettysburg - Leon

Three Gettysburg College students spent two months of their 2010 summer break doing volunteer international development work with Project Gettysburg-León (PGL) projects in León, Nicaragua, as part of the College’s Heston Summer Experience. Funded through the generosity of Gettysburg College 1970 Alumnus Jim Heston, the program furthers the College’s vision for active engagement in local and global contexts by providing selected students with unique community action summer immersion experiences.

Jim Heston with Marlon Moreno (president of the Taller Artistico Xuchialt), learning the elements of Nicaraguan primitivista painting.

This year’s Heston interns were sophomore Amanda Reynolds of Ashfield, MA, a Spanish and international affairs major who is particularly interested in ecology;  junior Katie Clay of  Ithaca, NY, a biology and Spanish major who spent a semester abroad in Panama and was on a previous, short-term PGL delegation to Nicaragua; and junior Marie Dripchak of Upper Saddle River, NJ, a Spanish major and frequent College music director for musical productions, who spent a semester abroad in Argentina.

Amanda first worked with the new botanical garden in León, assisting with training guides and creating publicity materials. She then worked with FUPROSOMUNIC, which is a long Spanish acronym for what best translates into Solar Projects for Nicaraguan Women. The organization teaches women to build solar ovens, and to use them, solar food dryers, and solar methods of water purification for income-generating activities such as selling dried fruits and teas.

Katie worked with the solar oven women for her full two months in Nica, assisting with the solar ovens workshops and in evaluating the entire project.

L-R: Amanda and Katie build a solar oven with FUPROSOMUNIC trainer Cristina Bermudez.

Marie worked with Taller Artistico Xuchialt, teaching classes in piano, musical notation and English, and working on publicity and outreach materials. Xuchialt is an arts school and presenting organization with which PGL has had a long-term relationship.  Its young teachers offer courses in traditional Nicaraguan dance, painting and guitar to youths in the barrio of Sutiava on the outskirts of León, and in rural areas where PGL has other projects.

Marie gives a piano recital at the Taller Artistico Xuchialt arts school.