Pa^ i — The Clarion's Greatest HitsI — Summer 1989
Mexican
Odyssey
TheBC tvork team
kicks off new service program
The world stands out on either side,
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky, —
No higher than the soul is high...”
“Renascence”
Fklna Si. Vincent Millay
Brevard College’s first “Project Inside-
Out” work team returned March 11 from
Durango, Mexico, after a week of building
on both construction projects and interna
tional relations.
Brevard sophomore Ann Whitmire
echoed the sentiments of the entire crew
when she said, ‘‘It was the most incredible
experience of my life.”
The 12 students accompanied by four
faculty-staff adults spent the March 3-ii
Spring Break repairing an old school gym,
teaching English to Mexican children, apd
renovating the home of an 89-year-old
woman.
They say they learned, among other
things, that love is the international
language. According to Hendersonville
freshman Penni Todd, “You don’t have to
be able to speak someone’s language to
show you love them.”
They witnessed a land of contrasts ; grin
ding poverty next to opulent homes, chok
ing air pollution next to the most beautiful
courtyard gardens in even the poorest of
homes, and the open use and sale of co
caine on the streets in contrast to the
sheltered lives of the elementary age
schoolchildren they taught.
"You could never learn this from a tex-
tl)ook at college, could you?” said work
supervisor Mike Dodson reflectively.
Director of Public Information Jock
Lauterer agreed. “It was total cultural im
mersion,” he said. “Even those of us who
couldn’t speak the language came back
spouting Spanish.”
That was one of the purposes of Project
!nside-Out—to give a real education
from inside the classroom to outside to
he real world,” said Project Coordinator
Sybil Dodson.
•Eye! Eye! Boca Raton. Fla.
sophomore Jennifer Weils
teaches English to a Mexican
kindergartener in Durango.
Mexico.
BC photos by Jock Lauterer>
The Mexico work trip was but the first of
what BC administrators hope to be a
broad-based community and international
service program aimed at two things:
enhancing the total education of Brevard
College students and making a difference
in this world.
The trip kicked off BC’s new service
component which will required of I990’s in
coming freshmen class.
As the BC work team departed, they
heard President Billy Greer tell them,
“you’re making history for BC. Someday
you’ll be able to look back and tell your
grandchildren you were the start of all
this.”
The HC students adopted
“Little Grannie,” Senora Lucita.
Here, Hendersonville freshman
Penni Todd combs the 89-year
old woman’s hair.