Applications closed for 2024.
We have heard from our course instructor team that yesterday “the group began a hike at 13,000 feet and reached a hidden lake at 14,600 feet, with views of a peak nearing 25,000. The altitude was a challenge, but it was a great experience. Later, we visited a nomadic family of yak herders. Traveling to…
The SStS 2019 Panama Crew will be returning home tomorrow, Monday, July 8. Their flight information can be found below: American Airlines Flight 1347 (Monday, July 8) Departs Panama City at 6:15 a.m. Arrives in Miami at 10:22 a.m.
Our Cambodia team is touring Angkor Wat currently. In the meantime, we will be posting updates from student journals written while they were in the field. Hi Everyone! Everyone here is doing well and back to working today for our last working day. We all woke up bright and early with the chickens and the…
Our course instructors have reported that the group has landed in Panama City and will enjoy a nice last meal together before finishing their course and heading home tomorrow morning.
Easily I think we can say world peace is a place free from conflict with absolute equality. Personally, when I was asked this question that was my initial response. I envisioned a utopia where everyone got along and no one experienced suffering. This is unrealistic. Obviously we have seen society’s attempt to make every person…
Our course instructors sent us a message by satellite phone letting us know the group is hard at work delivering filters in the town of Charque. We will post updates as we recieve them and will post photos upon the groups return to Rurre.
The Inipi: we took part in a traditional Lakota ceremony called inipi, which means “to live”, and is shaped like the mother’s womb, representing rebirth. The inipi is a dark canvassed tent that is heated with many hot stones from a fire. Inside, we sit by decreasing age in a circle, and participate in prayers…
On our first morning in Pine Ridge, we stood in a circle from oldest to youngest age as tradition in the Lakota heritage. Women were on one side and men on the other. To get to know each other, we went around and said each others names. Then, we took our first step into the…
Our course instructors have reported that group finished their work project and debrief today. Tomorrow they are off hiking before returning to Kangding on Monday.
Ring shopping has been something I was definitely looking forward to on this trip. Returning with not only a new outlook on life, but a new and fresh style that I could say was from a community right in the heart of South America. As I set out on this endeavor after lunch, I found…
July 5th started just like any other day. We woke up bright and early at 6:45 and prepared for our day. We proceeded to Tiriji where we engaged in a group yoga session (and for me a very inflexible 17 year old boy I watched in awe as our instructor and the majority of my…
I started my day off today with a walk to the ocean and eating coconuts cut down by a friendly local, Raymond. The fresh coconut was a sweet start to a very bittersweet ending to our time in San Cristóbal. When we arrived at “el internet”, the San Cristóbal community center, the kids were already…
Today was our last day at San Cristóbal. Two of our leaders let us have a last hurrah with the kids. They provided us with a piñata. The second we got off the boat with the piñata all of the kids started rushing to the community center. It was a really special moment being able…
I feel over these past two weeks I have witnessed a growing of understanding of what motivates me and the people around me to be happy and make others happy; it is the giving of something selflessly from one person to the next. The absolute generosity of the villagers comes from their happiness of making…
Lukas – Happy 4th of July! Today was our day of exploration and recovery after 2 hard days of work with the Greater New Orleans Iris Society. We started the day with an adventure to Bourbon Street. From there, we drove to “The Fly,” the local city park, where we picnicked and played a sweaty…
Our Cambodia instructors report that the group had a great 4th of July which they spent participating in a ceremony led by monks before eating together with the community. They hope to have a student journal post about the experience to the home office as soon as they connect to Wi-Fi.
Everyday that we have been in Bocas Del Toro, two of my group members and I have spent an hour at a local restaurant in Cristobol teaching the moms who own the restaurant English. We spent our time teaching them common restaurant phrases such as what would you like to eat, my name is, and…
Our course instructor team reports that the group has made it safely to Yolongshi and has begun their next project. Students will be supporting the Tibetan Village Project in repurposing oil drums to help families collect their trash and transport them to proper places for disposal.
Happy Fourth of July!! The American holiday was a different experience in Kenya; we began our day with a quiet morning of mindfulness at the Tiriji Eco Center beginning at 7:30. Our guided meditation started with closed eyes, we pictured our past as a personal garden; lush with new plants as well as aged with…
Today for lunch, we ate at one of the restaurants we have already eaten at, but since most restaurants here have a menu of the day, we ate totally different food. It was absolutely amazing and if the food was like that in the US, McDonalds would go out of business. When I was younger,…
“Don’t go because you’ve fallen in love with solvability. Go because you’ve fallen in love with complexity” -Courtney Martin Thirty hours, four planes, nine people. This is all it takes to be a part of change. It is important to note that we are not here to solve a crisis. We are here to understand…
Working in the community center for the past couple of days has definitely been a change from the active soccer games, piggy back rides and tag that were ever present in the first week of working with the kids. It has taken some getting used to, but having my leg contained in a cast has…
Today’s post is from Ellie who shared her handwritten journal. You can read the journal with the link below. http://staging.shouldertoshoulder-old.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ilovepdf_merged.pdf
After three days of working in Dora, seven students planted 300+/- trees. The trees will help prevent erosion, will provide wood, and will make the area even more beautiful. It was very satisfying to leave the worksite and see all our progress. We had a lovely lunch then went to play basketball. Basketball was really…
Getting up early at 6:30 and walking over to an eco center called Tiriji to do some mindfulness in Kenya is not something every rising senior can say they did this summer. We were in a large circle and did some very simple yoga poses that stretched out our bodies so that we could spend…
Reid – My favorite part of the day was when we replanted the irises. This was my favorite because it was our first hard work experience. Since I signed up for this trip, I’ve been waiting to go into the swamp and get some real work in. I was sad to find out that that…
Our Cambodia ’19 crew has been hard at work on helping to build a new school. During some time off today, they had the chance to interview some local teenagers about what the local school is like.
Today the group was in San Cristobal working hard to help finish painting teacher housing. The housing is important as teachers are often placed by the government and if they do not have a home to stay in locally, weather and other conditions impact their attendance. By providing comfortable housing for teachers, Give and Surf…
We received word from our course instructor team that students are continuing their project work in Dora. We will share a photo here and a few more on Instagram @studentsshouldertoshoulder
We started off the day with a delicious breakfast before we finally began our project. Our goal is to help the workers construct another guest house at KACH. We carried and placed lots of heavy stones, learned how to mix cement, and hauled bags of sand from one point to another. In between our project…