The Las Mercedes Project Intern Team!

Sunday, March 18th, 2012 (Written by Melissa Sena)

Aloha, supporters!

As many of you already know, Dana is now an assistant professor of sociology at Hawai’i Pacific University.  For the spring semester, he set up a special practicum course to involve students in the project in order to help us gain first hand training and participation on what goes into working in a non-profit organization that assists in building communities from the ground level.  While lectures assist us in understanding the academic aspects of these social problems, it doesn’t provide any practical instruction or direction to personally partake in the change necessary to create social change.  This internship helps to integrate course material with real life experience to better prepare us for excelling in our future fields once we walk across the graduation stage. We are all extremely proud to be a part of this worthy project and we are all hoping to make the trek down to Huaquillas and volunteer at the medical center.

The first ever:  “Las Mercedes Project Intern Team”

From left to right: Matt, Dana, Melissa, and Jairon

Melissa

My name is Melissa and I am currently a junior majoring in sociology at HPU. My part in the class is focusing on promoting the project to the student body by participating in the various activities we have planned for the remainder of the school year (and also serving as the author of this blog update!) I wanted to be a part of the Las Mercedes Project because of my recent venture to Cambodia, where I volunteered as an English teacher and mentor at the Palm Tree School and Orphanage. Meeting those kids changed my life forever, and I realized that my life path needed to focus on providing aid of those who need it the most. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Dana Rasch and further the Las Mercedes Project, which is changing the lives of so many people that reside in the community.

Matthew

Matthew is currently a senior majoring in psychology at HPU. He is focusing on the social aspects of club development of the Las Mercedes Project and provides vital contributions in ways of brainstorming new means of promoting the project and providing access to a large percentage of the student body within his social network. He decided to become involved with the project because “I wanted to be able to make a difference in the world, even my actions only influence a single person. I also want to be able to inspire and motivate others to do the same”.

Jairon is a senior majoring in Social Science, and he wrote:

“There is a lot to say about the project, all the participants have worked hard to accomplish the necessary tasks that are required to maintain the organization moving. It has been a learning experience for all of us, especially for me; I have realized that there are good people that are willing to give all they can to make this world a better place. Thank you!  That is the best way to explain my gratitude towards all of the participants that have gone beyond their limits to accomplish our goals. As an Ecuadorian, I am very thankful, I understand that this project is more than a practicum class required for my graduation, rather this is my responsibility as an Ecuadorian and as a son who understand the limitation on health care that many children of Las Mercedes experience. Whether is presenting our project to others, organizing fund raisers, updating our website, or simply getting together with the team to come up with new ideas, there is no doubt that we all are doing our very best and will never let down those who believe on us.”

From left to right: Tania, Gabrielle, and Dana

Tania

Tania is a freshman currently working for her bachelor’s degrees in Science and Nursing. She is a mother to three beautiful children, and her background includes twenty-one years of serving in the medical field. When asked about her reasoning for being involved with Las Mercedes project, she explained:

“My calling in life is to help others, and when Dana showed me the video of Las Mercedes in class, it got me motivated to maybe one day going there and helping the project.  My main focus in the class is to see that we get at least five grants to complete the project.”

Gabrielle

Gabrielle is serving as a junior majoring in Sociology with a minor in Gender and Women’s Studies. She is partnered with Tania and focuses mostly on formatting and completing grant applications to develop crucial grant writing skills. She decided to get involved with the Las Mercedes project because “I have a passion for social justice and aspire to found my own nonprofit organization in the future. I hope to create a nonprofit that caters to underprivileged youth and children in inner city areas. Working with the Las Mercedes Project has given me a taste of what the nonprofit field is like. In a perfect world, every human being would have access to equal opportunities to succeed but the reality is that such a world does not exist. I support any effort that attempts to change our world for the better and I feel that the Las Mercedes Project does just that”.

Our events:

The students created a project video that they played for the audience prior to the documentary they showed for the project movie night.

HPU Viewpoints

On March 2, our group hosted the HPU Viewpoints Series on campus where we screened “Salud!” a documentary describing the progressive medical movement in Latin America. Before showing the documentary, Jairon played a short video that the team created about the health promoters in Las Mercedes (Click here to view the video).  We also talked about upcoming plans for how we plan to personally involve the student body with the project and passed out Ecuadorian bracelets for the audience members to wear in support of Las Mercedes. After the movie ended, Jairon led a discussion about how the medical system could be changed in order to benefit people the most. Overall, the night went off without a hitch, and the crowd was much larger than we had expected. The auditorium was filled to capacity, with some people even sitting on the floor to watch the presentation. The outcome and support we received from the audience cemented our dedication to the project, and we are all looking forward to seeing how well our other projects pan out.

The intern team presenting the project at the HPU Viewpoints Series.

Intercultural Day

We are planning include participating in Hawai’i Pacific University’s Intercultural Day, which showcases traditions and cultural aspects from countries from around the world. Our group will be representing Ecuador and dressing in traditional Ecuadorian attire; be ready for pictures of Dana all dressed up in a future post!

Unión Latina

We are also creating Unión Latina, a club at HPU promoting the project and including activities and programs focused around the Latin American culture, solidarity and social change. We are very excited to get HPU’s Latino population and other students interested in the project together and put them to work on helping to reach the goals of the project!

Hawaii Hispanic News

We are certainly making a name for the project in Hawaii already and recently a front page article was published in the Hawaii Hispanic News discussing the project and our involvement as students!  Click here to read the article. 

Thank you for reading, we will continue to keep you updated! Mahalo!