Get excited! In only a few more days a wonderful group of UWO students will be making their way to El Progreso, Honduras for Alternative Spring Break. We are working with an organization called OYE or Organization for Youth Empowerment. This organization focuses on the at-risk youth of Honduras. It is community based. They focus on education, leadership, and community involvement with these students. The main goal is to empower these children so that someday they can be agents of positive change. Here’s where we come in; during our trip we will be learning about the organization, Honduras, and participating in all sorts of volunteer projects. Our week is going to be jam packed with events!

 

Here is our tentative schedule:

 

March 22

Arrive in Honduras!

 

March 23

Introduction to OYE and the week’s projects!

“Hands on El Progreso” river cleanup and reforestation

 

March 24

Tour of El Progreso

Panels about National Reality

Project Time

 

March 25

Panels on Education

Tour of local schools

Recreation! (Soccer?)

Project Time

 

March 26

Hiking and Swimming

Panels on Corporate Social Responsibility

Project time

 

March 27

Finalize Projects

Return to Local School to implement projects

 

March 28

Beach Day! With OYE Scholars

 

March 29

Return home

 

To prepare for our trip the team has been meeting. We have read two books to inspire ourselves. One is Strengths Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie. With this book we were able to take a quiz called StrengthsQuest, which told us what kind of strengths we held. The book’s main idea is to focus on your strong attributes and use them to make you even more successful. As a team we have learned about each other’s strengths so we can see how we will work together. The other book we read was Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie, the creator of TOMS shoes. This book taught us how Blake was inspired and created a business that helps others. I would recommend both of these books to anyone who wants to kick start their path to becoming a strong leader.

 

The excitement for this trip is uncanny! I hope you all enjoy following us on our journey through these blog posts!