Bronx Student Talks Africa Service Experience, Impact

By Matt Surrusco, YEZ Program Coordinator

Whether traveling to Africa, Central America or Asia, students who participate in the buildOn Trek for Knowledge Program leave the U.S. having done significant volunteer work in their local community. After spending two weeks in a developing country, they return home global citizens, having served others on an international scale by helping build a school in a village that previously had little to no access to quality education.

Christopher Taylor, a junior at Mott Hall Bronx High School, is one student who expanded his service credentials from local to global. He traveled to Malawi in February with 14 other Bronx high school students, a few buildOn coordinators and buildOn’s founder, president and CEO Jim Ziolkowski. Chris lived with a Malawian host family, participated in three hours of cultural activities daily and worked for three hours a day alongside buildOn students and community members. Each was committed to digging the foundation, mixing the cement and moving the bricks that become a new school for village children, parents and grandparents.

Pictured Above: Christopher Taylor, 16, from the Bronx, lifts up his host brother outside a buildOn school.

buildOn spoke with Chris recently about his Trek experience and the impact the international service trip had on him.

buildOn: What did your friends and family think when you told them you were going to Africa?

Christopher Taylor: They said, “You’re crazy. Watch out for the lions.” Monica [Christopher’s sister and legal guardian] said, “don’t drink the water over there.” One of my friends said, “You’re crazy. You’ll get eaten or killed.” Teachers said you’re going to have fun, and take pictures.

buildOn: Did you ever have second thoughts about going?

CT: No, I was just very excited to go. Time out of America. Time out of my life.

buildOn: What was your first impression of Malawi when you walked out of the airport with your fellow students?

CT: It was hot. So hot. It was shocking because I saw everybody looking at us. We were the outcasts, the outsiders. That was on the bus ride. But once we arrived in the village it was a totally different feeling. The villagers embraced us and showed us love.

buildOn: What was the most challenging experience you had?

CT: The first day of working. We had to dig holes. Dig deep into the ground to start the foundation of the school. It was a lot to do. I was extremely tired. I could barely breath. But I didn’t stop. I kept going because in my mind my three hours of hard labor each day, compared to the Malawians’ regular labor, was nothing.

buildOn: Did anything surprise you while you were in Africa?

CT: The kids. They had an old school right there in the village. Some kids who lived right next to it, they’d be on time everyday. Over here, every kid who lives right next to Mott Hall High School, they’ll come late just because they live right next to the school. And then the Malawian kids who live far from their school, two hours away, they’d still be on time, they’d be right there in school learning. It just shows they actually care. They value education.

buildOn: What do you think the long-term impact of this trip will be on you?

CT: It made me want to do better in life. It made me want to stop slacking, and get on board. Be where I should be at, not where I could be at.

buildOn: What’s similar about doing service locally and doing service in Africa?

CT: buildOn tries to help out anybody who needs help. It’s similar in Africa and the Bronx. For us to go over there, to Africa, they had to build thousands of bricks. And over here, for us to do a community service project, they have to arrange that, make sure everything is okay to do it. So it’s a commitment from the villagers in Malawi and a commitment from the Bronx for us to do something. We need to get the commitment from the community we serve.

buildOn: What do you want to be when you grow up?

CT: When people ask me what I want to be, I say I just want to help people. And I went to Africa, so a humanitarian, but I’m not too sure. I’m undecided, but it seems like it’s going in that direction.

In Afterschool Youth Empowerment, International School Construction

Students from buildOn and Girls Inc Learn How
Service Can Help Victims of Human Trafficking

buildOn’s students aren’t just engaging in volunteer projects where they serve soup to local homeless individuals or pick up trash. They’re learning about global social issues so they can see the bigger picture that they’re a part of. Often, we combine local outreach with global activism to help spread the word about obstacles faced by the developing nations where we build schools and beyond.

A few weekends ago, students from both buildOn and Girls, Inc., an organization working to empower girls through academic enrichment, skill building, and counseling, came together to discuss human trafficking on a local and global level. We began the day with a look at what CSEC (commercially sexually exploited children) means. Through interactive activities we discussed who these children/teens are, how they get involved, and why they stay involved.

Students told stories of how they have seen this problem in their own communities/schools. We then watched an emotional documentary called Very Young Girls which follows 13 and 14 year old girls from New York as they tell their own stories of how they were seduced, abused, and sold on New York streets by pimps, while being treated as adult criminals by police. The film showed with harsh realism not only how trafficking affects people in NYC, but also in Oakland — one of the major sex trafficking hubs in the US.

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In Afterschool Youth Empowerment, Community Service Days

Weekend Youth Service Round-up for January 30th, 2011

With the snow that fell two weeks ago melted, our students were back in action across the nation with service projects. Here’s an update from some of our regions:

San Francisco: Bay Area youth spent Saturday learning about human trafficking through a partnership with Girls Inc. They ended the day by raising awareness for the issue by writing chalk messages on sidewalks!

Chicago: Students rose early to distribute food from a pantry to those in need.

Detroit: At Detroit’s 2nd annual service party, students made friendship bracelets and cards of encouragement for homeless teens. Other students prepared for their school-building trip to Haiti in two weeks. Still others made catnip toys for cats at the Michigan Humane Society.

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In Afterschool Youth Empowerment, Community Service Days

Service Learning in the Bronx:
Student Honors MLK Day with Poem

Rahni Davis is a student at Banana Kelly in the Bronx, where buildOn is transforming classrooms with service learning programs. Davis tutors elementary-aged children with buildOn at The Point, and is very excited to be traveling this spring to help us construct a school in Malawi! Below, she performs a poem written on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday to preserve Dr. King’s memory and remind us of the work that still needs to be done.

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In Afterschool Youth Empowerment, Community Service Days, Youth Engagement Zone

Service Learning in the Bronx:
10th Grade Science Classes Empowered by
Teen Health Speaker

By Stephanie Gilman, Program Manager

Earlier this year the Youth Engagement Zone at Banana Kelly had the great pleasure of bringing Estelle Raboni, Program Manager of Changing the Odds, and community health expert, to the 10th grade classes to speak and answer questions. As discussed previously in regards to our 10th grade health survey of the Bronx, this semester has been all about training the class to become independent learners and health advocates at Banana Kelly High, and with this speaker we hoped to personalize the findings made in the community health survey for our students. Asking questions, after all, is a necessary part of community and social growth, and we hoped to empower students to ask whatever questions they might have.

To prepare the students for Estelle’s visit we had them do a question formulation technique exercise which involved brainstorming as many questions as possible about the various health issues they are researching. They were then asked to choose the questions most appropriate to ask an expert. In addition, we went over the results of the surveys they administered in October. We wanted the students to dig deep within themselves and pull out genuine, thoughtful questions in response to their own environment and experience.

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In Afterschool Youth Empowerment, Youth Engagement Zone

Service Round-up: Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend

In San Francisco and Oakland, students dismantled recycled computers. Others worked at Land’s End Park, gardening and landscaping. Students also put on a “fun day” for refugee youth at a local shelter. Still others joined the 14th annual MLK celebration in the East Bay and contributed to an “I Have A Dream…” mural!

In Chicago, students made a mosaic portrait of Dr. King out of dominoes. They also made “origami cranes for peace”. Still others beautified a YMCA on Chicago’s west side – where MLK once lived – with the help of Mayor Rahm Emanuel!

In Detroit, students joined thousands in celebration at Union Station before volunteering with seniors in honor of Dr. King’s memory. Others participated in a “poverty simulation” to raise awareness for those living below the poverty line!

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In Afterschool Youth Empowerment, Community Service Days, buildOn In The News

Behind the Scenes in Nepal: Dalmar Nation

buildOn’s newly released PSA can now be seen on Youtube with an introduction from TODAY show anchor Ann Curry! To tell the story of youth from the innercity joining forces with remote villagers worldwide, we took a camera crew on an incredible journey with us from one of the United States’ toughest neighborhoods in the Bronx all the way to Nepal. In that beautiful, mountainous country, high school students from NYC constructed buildOn’s 400th global school alongside local community members who had been waiting and hoping for a way to educate themselves and their children for their entire lives.

Dalmar Nation, from the Bronx, was on that trip, and is one of the stars of the new buildOn video. We talked to Dalmar to get an inside look at the experience of trekking halfway across the world with a production team to build a school!

How did you get involved in buildOn?

A friend of mine inspired me to go. She said that the program allowed you to help people in Brooklyn, and I thought it sounded cool. I like helping people. One of the first meetings I went to was a coastal cleanup–we went to Brighton Beach to clean. It was an awesome day of cleaning up, on the beach, with friends. And then I just started going to more projects and more projects, and it sounded like a fun program to join.

What were your first thoughts after being chosen to go on the school building trip to Nepal?

I didn’t know what to expect. I really didn’t. I’d never been out of the country before. And when we got there, there was no pavement on the road, there was mud everywhere. I was like, “wow”. And we were there to build a school. It was an exciting challenge.

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In 20th Anniversary, Afterschool Youth Empowerment, International School Construction

They buildOn: Luis Alonso’s Story Part II
“Nothing Short of Empowering”

Raised in the South Bronx and placed in foster care before he entered his inner-city high school, Luis was statistically more likely to end up in jail than graduate. But instead of succumbing to the challenges he faced, Luis took control of his own life by helping others through buildOn. We described the first part of his incredible high school experience here.

For a student like Luis who had once received many of his meals at food pantries and soup kitchens, the opportunity to serve others in the same situation was nothing short of empowering.

“I had prior experience with soup kitchens myself while living with my father,” Luis said, “but I never expected to be on the other side of the line – serving food to people who were once in my predicament. The sheer amount of people who came gave me insight into the real problem of poverty, and made me feel grateful. I will never forget my experience there.”

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In 20th Anniversary, Afterschool Youth Empowerment

buildOn Employee of the Month Crystal Collins Inspires Teens to Inspire Each Other

“Crystal is just awesome,” says buildOn’s Program Director in Philadelphia, Joanna Branch. “She has, on more than one occasion, come into my office excited about cheers she’s created about buildOn.” Branch’s smile widens. “She always performs them for me.”

Crystal Collins, a youth service program coordinator from Philly, is buildOn’s Employee of the Month. She was hired a year and a half ago as a part-time employee, and came on fully in the spring of 2011. Since then, she has made invaluable contributions to our growing Philly youth service programs, planning countless projects, inspiring countless students, and approaching countless tasks with infectious effervescence.

Branch, in fact, has trouble summing up Collins’ achievements concisely, but usually starts by describing the many service projects she’s orchestrated, including the “Abolish the R Word” challenge. “After spending a day volunteering at the Special Olympics, Collins’ students learned about how hurtful the ‘r’ word is, and were challenged to bring the message back to their schools. The student enthusiasm surrounding this initiative has been outstanding. Some made T-Shirts, some made videos, some made stickers…. Crystal’s vision was key to allowing the student voices to shine.”

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In Afterschool Youth Empowerment, International School Construction

buildOn Students in NYC Tirelessly Commit Themselves
to Holiday Service

In today’s blog post, program coordinator Mat Pryfogle from NYC updates us on some exciting holiday service happening in his region!

The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund is celebrating it’s 100th year and as part of their celebration they wanted to partner with NYC Service and engage high school youth in meaningful service. Together, they created a fantastic set of celebratory projects happening during the 2011 holiday season. Everything was set and all that was left was finding students to take part in the exciting service events. After having mixed results trying to recruit students from targeted high schools for service, someone thought of buildOn.

When originally approached, buildOn was asked to recruit students for three events, but within a couple of weeks that list had doubled. Around 50 buildOn students from schools in Manhattan & Brooklyn helped to put on six different events occurring in three different boroughs.

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In Afterschool Youth Empowerment, Community Service Days