Service, learning in Guatemala

Offering a helping hand at an orphanage was just one of the activities for social work students during what has become an annual UW-Green Bay summer trip to Guatemala. Shown here are Lynn Debilzen, Vanessa Solberg, Michelle Legault and Courtney Hocks. Below, Renee Dodge poses with new friends. The students spent five weeks in the Central American nation beginning with a Spanish-language immersion program. They then joined service agencies and local social workers in contributing time to a home-building project and providing social-work services at the orphanage, a homeless shelter, a home for the abandoned elderly, and a food-distribution center. They also accompanied local practitioners on their visits to mountain villages. The June 2006 course was led by Loretta Larkey, lecturer and field coordinator for the Social Work program at UW-Green Bay.