Student Reflections from Fall 2002Below are the reflections and thoughts from the Casa students who were in El Salvador for the Fall 2002 semester. These reflections are in alphabetical order by student's last name.
My sophomore year of college was a big turning point in my life. I did not like the things I was studying at school so I decided to change my major from marketing to philosophy. I first heard about the Casa program when Kevin Yonkers-Talz (program co-director) came to my PULSE class to talk about it. (PULSE is a class that integrates community service into a philosophy and theology class.) The Casa program combines classes with the opportunity to work in a community, which is what I believed to be the most unique part to my PULSE class. When Kevin began to talk about the program I knew that it was what I wanted to do. As I write this, it’s only been fourteen days so far since I've been in El Salvador, and if I were to leave tomorrow I would say that it has been one of the best experiences of my life. I had never left the country before so everything is new for me. It is an amazing program and each day brings a new opportunity and challenge. The Casa program offers many chances to take a step out of your comfort zone to discover new things about yourself and others. The Salvadorans are amazing and I am looking forward to the next fourteen weeks of learning. Favorite Quotes: "There's no day but today!" -Rent Contact me at clemenam@bc.edu
So far my experience has been going exactly as planned: unpredictable. I try to close my eyes before walking into each new day. And so everyday has been a surprise, you know what I mean? Holla back, Walker Percy, I feel you. What has it been like? Well, if there are Casa hopefuls looking at this, then I’ll just stop right here. You’ll feel it, man, when you come down here, whatever it is you’re supposed to feel. Favorite quotes: "The most wasted of days is one gone without laughter."
I wasn’t thinking about studying abroad, because I didn’t think the financial aspect would work out. Then Kevin Yonkers-Talz (program co-director) came to Fordham and I just went to give him presents to take back to my friend Steve, who was here last semester, but Kevin asked me to stay for lunch. I was kind of angry during that lunch because I thought that I wouldn’t be able to study abroad, but from what I was hearing, I already loved the program so much. I wanted to learn Spanish, and what better way to do that than through total immersion? I wanted to see liberation theology in action. I wanted my spirituality to grow, so I liked that the Jesuit ideals were such a big part of the program. I wanted to be in solidarity with the poor and put my faith into action. I wanted to learn more about social and economic justice in a developing country. I wanted to live justice. So I didn’t think anymore about the fact that I might not be able to afford it – I made it work. After just two weeks, I can say that this experience has been life changing. I have seen the beauty of the Salvadoran people in a family who lost three children during the war and had to move from place to place for four years to save the rest of their children’s lives. They have lived through so much and it seems that they have every right to be bitter and angry people; but in their house, I only felt energy, love, and hope. And because of their energy, love, and hope, I felt my own grow. I have been completely humbled because of my Spanish skills. I came with very limited experience, and every day is a struggle for me, but the Salvadoran people are so patient and willing to help me learn. Living in community these past two weeks has also been amazing. I am so excited to grow and learn with my housemates. I love the classes that we are taking because we can see what we learn in our praxis sites and in the everyday lives of the Salvadoran people. I can feel myself falling more and more in love with this country…and I know I don’t want to stop. Favorite Quotes: "And I wonder when I sing along with you, if everything could ever feel this real forever… if anything could ever be this good again… the only thing I’ll ask of you: you gotta promise not to stop when I say ‘when’." I would love to be a contact person! betterthancats@yahoo.com
I came to El Salvador to learn more about myself. I wanted to learn about the reality that I have been immune to my entire life. I wanted to learn how to love unconditionally with compassion, courage, and wisdom. I know that the people whom I meet through this program will teach me all of these things. My experience here so far has been humbling in many ways. The friendship and generosity shared by the Salvadorans has humbled me. Living in community with other intelligent and passionate students has humbled me. Emotionally I have been broken down to the utmost fundamental level. I can only expect that this experience will rebuild me a more courageous person with more wisdom and a greater desire to fight for justice. Favorite Quotes: Albert Einstein – "You can go through life looking at things in two ways; one as if nothing is a miracle, and the other as if everything is a miracle." Feel free to contact me: pkozak@jcu.edu
For me, the Casa de la Solidaridad program was perfect because it embraced all of the Jesuit ideals that I wanted to implement in my life. I had personal goals of increasing my awareness and discovering my own passions and beliefs in life. Living with the Salvadoran people and learning about their spirit, beauty, and faith seemed to be the ideal opportunity for me to realize those goals. Sometimes the only way to truly find yourself is to push away from your comfort zone and dare to understand the reality of the rest of the world. The Casa program has allowed me to do just that. So far my experience has been mind-blowing. The Salvadorans laugh and rejoice when we might cry. They face obstacles with incredible strength and confidence. Through them, I’m learning to stand up straight and see the abundant beauty and love that permeates all of life. Favorite Quote: I would love to be a contact person—please write! elehman@jcu.edu
I decided to come to the Casa because I knew it would give me a chance to experience for myself and place into context all the things I was learning at Fordham. Just reading about how the international economy/international politics function was fine for me up until a point, but I knew I would never be able to work for something, stand for something, or confidently speak my views about something until I had seen and experienced the truth for myself. So far, this program is all I had hoped for and more. The connections the Casa has with the Salvadoran people are unreal. We have access to more resources than we could ever wish to take advantage of. I feel like we have the best of both worlds in that we are immersed in the reality of the country through our community experiences, while at the same time we have the tools and the opportunity to step back and think about our experiences critically. Favorite Quote: Contact me at masiello@fordham.edu
I knew that for my study abroad experience I wanted something non-traditional that would allow me to be immersed in a new culture, live a new reality, and that contained the important aspect of social justice. Ever since I read a pamphlet on Casa de la Solidaridad, it drew my attention for its emphasis on justice and solidarity. It is the perfect combination of education and a unique learning experience taught to me by the Salvadoreños. I also thought it to be the perfect opportunity to learn about Central America, a part of my Latin American continent that I had not yet visited. I felt that by coming to Casa de la Solidaridad I would be learning and doing what is up to me to make this world a little more just. My experience here has been amazing. There have been hard times, and I know they will not go away in the future. They consist of realizing the existence of a tragic history of war, oppression, and poverty. However, I have experienced amazing faith, solidarity, and warmth from the Salvadoreños and my classmates in the Casa. And within the suffering there is beauty, simplicity and so much love. I hope to learn to love completely and unconditionally, live simply and be in solidarity with the poor by the time I return home. There is an incredible history of Latin America, which I can only achieve of learning by living in love and justice, and experiencing the stories, songs, and culture of El Salvador. Favorite quote/saying: Willing to be a contact person? Of course! chelly16@hotmail.com
I came to El Salvador for inspiration. I came to experience life outside of my comfort zone and the ever distracting and cavernous world of my head. I came to live with my heart, to see things that make me ache and laugh and love in ways that I never have before. I came to challenge myself, and to step up my education. I came to escape complacency, to prove to myself that no, everything is not alright, but that even among suffering we can be inspired to act. I came to learn about faith and community, two things that I have gone too long without in the United States. I came to put part of me at peace and to stir up and frustrate the rest of me. Every word in the stock of the English language is too trite to describe my experience so far. It has not been a one-word encounter but a hurricane of contrasting emotions and thoughts. I have been frustrated and inspired. I have felt guilt and I have felt hope. I have seen pain and I have seen love. The community that is developing in the house is amazing, and something that I greatly appreciate, myself being the poster child for American individualism. The communities we have visited in San Salvador have been welcoming, although their poverty has been hard to bear. Salvadorans have been equivocally both boisterous and full of pena, or reservation. In my first few classes I have learned so much about the history and politics that explains to the desperation of the people here, and in other visits I have witnessed inspiring levels of commitment to raise El Salvador to the level of dignity it deserves. If there is anything I have seen in all the Salvadorans I have met it is commitment. I find myself changing already and asking all sorts of questions that sometimes make me feel like I have it all figured out, and sometimes (more often than not) make me feel as though I will never know the answers. When I get back to the States, I intend to follow the lyrics of a song we sang in a parish in La Chacra: "yo no puedo callar"—I cannot remain silent. Favorite Quote: Make me a contact person! Email: jenrescu@yahoo.com
CASA is like a dream come true…when I saw this program on the SCU Study Abroad webpage, I couldn’t stop reading about it. I got deep into the reflections written by students at the CASA last year and I thought, ‘Hey, that sounds pretty much like me!’ From reading the students’ writings, I knew that the CASA attracted the type of people who want to be conscious about what goes on behind the scenes in our world economy because they care enough to change it. I could tell that the CASA brought people together to look for the reasons and to search for the truths behind the reasons. I am a person who has always desired to understand the complete truth behind every creation and every action; I’ve always cared about people and wanted things to be fair. It was impossible for me to deny the perfect fit. The CASA program was made for people like me, and if you feel what I’m saying, it was made for people like you too. It has only been a week since I arrived, but already I hardly know what time it is or how long I’ve been here. Each day is a new awakening, full of touching moments that weave in and out of difficulty, sadness, shock, beauty, fascination and love. Being here is like nothing else because El Salvador is like nowhere else. The people here have an incredible capacity for life in all its different colors. Daily my heart is blown open by something someone says or by the look on a child’s face. Poverty is apparent in all its manifestations, but the richness in the Salvadoran people is so strong, everything else fades away and I am often left in wonder – wonder at the Salvadoran faith, wonder at God’s amazing creation, and wonder at my place within it all. Favorite Quotes: "Love like you’ve never been hurt and dance like no one is watching." Yes, I am willing to be a contact person: rsaratore@scu.edu
I was drawn to the Casa de la Solidaridad because it offered a combination of academics and working within the community. I wanted to participate in an abroad program that really immersed me into the culture and I felt that Casa would be able to do that. I really liked the idea of living in community and really having the opportunity to build relationships with other students who felt drawn to an integrated program like this. My experience so far, in only two weeks, has been life changing. The Salvadoran people are absolutely amazing, very welcoming and they have so much to offer. I feel as though I have already learned things from them that I will carry with me forever. The classes are very great and I find it very great that they are integrated into what we are doing within the community. The community living aspect is wonderful and I feel that it has been very important with everything that I am doing here, and it is great to have a close group with whom you can share experiences. Favorite Quote: Yes, I would love to be a contact person- SargentE4@aol.com
I decided that the Casa program was right for me because it wasn’t like most other study abroad programs. I knew I wanted a Latin American, Spanish speaking country. When I found the program, I found it to be very highly recommended from both faculty at Santa Clara and past Casa students. Thus far, my experience here has been amazing. I came with some thoughts of what it might be like, but understand why people had such trouble putting this experience in words. The Salvadoran people are amazing. As a group we have been greeted with open arms and offered a glimpse of their reality, a reality so different than my own. Over the next few months, I hope to continue to build these friendships and continue to learn from these people as I know there is so much growth that can be achieved here. I would be happy to be a contact person: JLShaw@scu.edu
I wanted to make simple living and social justice more a part of my life. I came to El Salvador last year for three or four weeks in Arcatao. The experience stirred me so much during the Fall term that I constantly questioned who I was and who I wanted to be. I took many assessments at the Career Center on campus and realized that an Economics major was not stimulating me enough. I switched to being a Philosophy major. At the same time, I just wanted out of the country to absorb experiential learning of language, myself and the world. Three weeks in El Salvador the first time was hardly enough. I wanted to return so that I could transform my character. I looked forward to the reflective component of the Casa because of the solitude I felt in stepping from the Third World to campus. I knew that reflection would be key to absorbing the emotions and questions inspired by the Salvadoran reality. I know now that I am here simply to learn to love. These people here hardly want our help, they allow us into our lives so that we may learn from them. Thus far I have been living "The Question," as I call it. More or less I seek the best way for me to live. I seek passion and purpose. Orientation has ended and the boat has been launched. Monday, Jenn and I took the plunge into our praxis site at La Chacra, a community of El Salvador’s poorest people. There I am needed as a physical education teacher at a destitute school, Fe y Alegria. I hope however to seize other opportunities presented there. For instance, we plan to help gather information about the families and their lives as part of this year’s census.Academically speaking, I no longer mind that my classes are only with other Casa students because the curriculum truly gives comprehension to the Salvadoran reality and involves a reflective processes that allows for true learning, i.e. change. FAVORITES: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." Solidarity = Do unto others as you would have done to you "I think it pisses God of if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it." -- Alice Walker "Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die life is a broken-winged bird that does not fly." -- T.S. Eliot "There has never been a man totally true to himself who fails to move others" --Mencius Carpe Diem "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so learn nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness out of it and publish its meanness to the world or if it were sublime, to know it by experience…" -- Henry David Thoreau, Walden Contact me at flySCU@aol.com
After visiting El Salvador in March, I was in awe of the country, its history, its people, the faith, and the culture, and I knew that I had to come back to learn more. The Casa de la Solidaridad provided me the opportunity to do just that, but on an even deeper level, a level that would challenge and expand both my intellect and my spirit. The experience has been absolutely amazing so far. Everything we learn is reinforced in what we do and see. Having a praxis site, where you can learn the history and reality first hand, while simultaneously reading about in class, makes the program very special. It is wonderful to be here with other people who are so diverse in their background and experience, but still share the same concerns and are experiencing the same things you are. Favorite Quote: I would most definitely be willing to be a contact for students: valencis@bc.edu
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