{"id":321,"date":"2016-11-16T15:58:16","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T15:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www2.lvc.edu\/lavie\/?p=321"},"modified":"2016-11-16T15:58:16","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T15:58:16","slug":"lvc-students-give-back-to-puerto-rico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/2016\/11\/16\/lvc-students-give-back-to-puerto-rico\/","title":{"rendered":"LVC students slated to go to Puerto Rico"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shilesky Montalvo, staff writer<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Lebanon Valley College took 11 students and a few faculty members on a service trip to Caguas, Puerto Rico in 2014. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These students volunteered in a shelter that houses women who are victims of physical abuse; they also\u00a0visited an elementary school. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Spanish professor Dr. Ivette Guzman-Zavala is originally from Caguas, Puerto Rico. She felt like she did not contribute enough to the community she grew up in after moving to the United States. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like I needed to give back to my community,\u201d Guzman-Zavala said. \u201cCaguas is a place close to my heart, and there are a lot of needs in this community.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This service trip in May 2017 is open to any student at LVC;\u00a0the only prerequisite is Spanish 202 or higher.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStudents must have an initiative to help out the community,\u201d Guzman-Zavala said. \u201cWhen our students came back, they were touched by what they saw and how much they impacted the community. An experienced student who has previously traveled on service trips said the women she met were the strongest women she has ever met.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There are many\u00a0aspects one will notice after going on this service trip.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRealizing one\u2019s own privilege of resources is a key factor,\u201d Guzman-Zavala said. “There are people just like\u00a0them that might not be at the same scholarly level as\u00a0them because they don\u2019t have sufficient funds.\u00a0 One realizes how much one can achieve by knowing a second language.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Guzman-Zavala says that if one works hard in life, and one doesn\u2019t see the outcome right away, just wait. When one least expects it, one will be rewarded for it. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother student who went on this trip who was also part of the basketball team made a huge connection with the kids from Puerto Rico,\u201d Dr. Guzman-Zavala said. \u201cThis student applied for several graduate schools, and I wrote her a recommendation letter because she worked really hard on this trip and deserved it. The director of admissions at the school she got accepted to grew up close to Caguas, Puerto Rico.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Students who are interested in making a difference in not only their community, but also in a different country, should consider taking advantage of these opportunities.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shilesky Montalvo, staff writer Lebanon Valley College took 11 students and a few faculty members on a service trip to Caguas, Puerto Rico in 2014. These students volunteered in a shelter that houses women […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-321","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.lvc.edu\/lavie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}