Una fiesta de despedida (farewell party)

To celebrate the completion of the professional development conference, the Nicaraguan teachers and members of Alinza American put on a despedida for the MAT team. 

We walked up the street from the conference location to Dr. Oscar Aragón’s house that happens to be a restaurant. There we were served an amazing meal of the most delicious Nicaraguan food.

Getting ready to feel all the hungry teachers

When everyone was done eating, the MAT team gave individual farewell speeches thanking the Nicaraguan teachers for their endless hospitality, generosity, and friendship. We shared our gratitude for being able to participate a once in a lifetime experience with incredible educators in our global community.

I saw their passion for teaching each day of the conference. I learned the teachers would do anything in their power  to help their students succeed. They have the same hopes and dreams for enabling a bright future for their students as I do for my own students. The Nicaraguan teachers may not have much, but give so much of themselves.

After the speeches given by the MAT team members, some educators from a different school district gave speeches. Each school district represented gave each member of the MAT team small gifts as a token of their gratitude. I was overwhelmed and deeply touched by their generosity and thoughtfulness.

Audience of educators

Unexpectedly the music started! Two Nicaraguan teachers came out of nowhere dancing while dressed up in silly costumes. The music was playing and people were cheering them on. The pair dance together and then came over to dance with each of us in front of the whole crowd. I had so much fun!

Dancing with one of the dancers

We also listened to a band of musicians play beautiful traditional songs. What a wonderful end to the fantastic despendida! 

Singing and playing traditional music on the guitar

Professional Development Conference

The professional development conference in Nicaragua was a huge success! I never expected the conference to be as incredible as it was. It exceeded any prior expectations.  

During Professor Kerison’s session on the first day of conference, I was introduced to all of the Nicaraguan teachers. I felt lucky to meet these amazing educators I had heard so much about in stories from team members who had already traveled to Nicaragua. It seemed as though I had been waiting a lifetime to meet them.


I felt incredibly impressed and inspired by the Nicaraguan educators I met while my translator and I moved from table to table around the room to greet them. By talking to the teachers, I learned about their experiences of teaching in rural underprivileged schools. They told me more information on where they taught, what it was like to work in those schools, what their students are like, and how they coped with daily challenges like simply commuting to the school each day. They also shared some of their strategies for dealing with as many as sixty students in a classroom or how to deal with teaching multiple grades at the same time. Some classrooms were outside because there is not enough room for all the students inside the school.

These educators demonstrated their enormous passion, resourcefulness and ingenuity when working with students using limited resources. Each group of teachers from a different school district had the opportunity to present lessons they developed to the audience. The groups of teachers created all sorts of elaborate charts, colorful posters, and graphic organizers as part of their instructional strategies to teach various subjects. One group of teachers even constructed a cardboard TV as a method for teaching story telling. Another group shared a questioning technique of crumbling different pieces of paper into a ball. Each student could take a layer off of the ball and answer that question on the topic of the lesson.

Mathematics lessons

Language Arts lessons

Notice the TV they created on the table top

My individual breakout sessions at the Conference were the most powerful and influential part of whole experience for me. Each day I presented, I grew more confident in my teaching ability and comfortable presenting in front of a group of colleagues. The teachers responded enthusiastically to our language arts unit and lesson plans. It made the hard work Therese and I put into developing our unit all the more meaningful. 


I got the impression that each teacher in my sessions felt grateful to learn new instructional strategies and eager to incorporate them into their classrooms. I found it particularly touching seeing their eyes light up with “ah ha” moments and pure excitement for getting their hands on some of the materials we brought down. They were thrilled with the felt boards we created for story telling using felt pieces.  

After my individual breakout sessions were over, I felt an intense, overwhelming, indescribable rush. My eyes filled with tears at the overpowering sense of fulfilling my life’s purpose. I knew that this is what I was meant to do for the rest of my life. 

Leaving Tonight!

At 1am tonight (Friday morning) are leaving the Albert Schweitzer Institute to head down to JFK International Airport. We’ll be flying to Miami on a 5am flight and then on to Managua by 1pm. From there, we’ll travel to La Villa where our home stay families will be waiting for us. Today I have been so excited/nervous/anxious to go! I am ready to start this journey with my amazing team.

Our first weekend in Nicaragua will include visiting Alianza Americana, meet teachers and students from La Cieba school before the Professional Development Conference, climbing a volcano, go to a beach and see historical sites like El Fortin. 


Starting on Monday, the MAT team will be presenting at the Conference and the Agriculture team will begin working on their projects at La Cieba.

Last night at final meeting before the trip, we packed the last of the 75 binders, school supplies for each of the 13 schools, some supplies for two school districts to be distributed at the teacher’s Conference. The agriculture team is bringing down supplies to distribute to the children while working in La Cieba. I can’t wait to see the reaction of the teachers and students when they get all the supplies we purchased and received from generous donations!

Pasta Dinner with Oscar & Margine

Lou Venturelli

On Thursday March 3th Lou Venturelli, a former Nicaraguan delegate on the agriculture team, held a Pasta Dinner to raise donations to benefit a student in Nicaragua he met on the trip last year. The dinner was wonderful! 

Lou made such yummy food! He made pasta, pizza on muffins, salad, rolls and dessert for everyone. Fortunately, Lou was able to raise some funds to send to his Nicaraguan friend.

Our guests of honor for the evening were Dr. Oscar Aragón, one of the founders of Alianza American, and Margine Hernandez.

Alianza American is a school which trains Nicaraguan people in English. Learning English provides the students at Alianza Americana with greater opportunities for future careers. Oscar and Margine were visiting from Nicaragua for 10 days and we were lucky enough to see them both before the trip!

Promo Video for Nicaragua Benefit Dinner

Check out A Road Unpaved

Please take a look at Taylor Roberts & David Fitzgerald’s blog “A Road Unpaved” about a documentary they created focusing on the life of people in Nicaragua with disabilities. They are both members of the Nicaragua Alternative Spring Break Delegation.

The documentary explores the social atmosphere in Nicaragua and the public’s view of people with disabilities. They are looking at what the government is and is not doing to help improve their quality of life as well as the link between a physical disability and depression.

Taylor and David have been shooting this documentary since October and will continue with this project in March. They are reaching out for support for this powerful documentary which they are both so passionate about.

Benefit Dinner Tonight at TGI Fridays!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all resting up and enjoying your day off so you will be well ready for tonight's event at TGI Fridays! This evening from 6-11pm, TGI Friday's is holding a fundraising event to assist students going on the alternative spring break trip to Nicaragua through the Albert Schweitzer Institute at Quinnipiac University. TGI Fridays will be giving 20% of the total bill to our cause, so please take the time to come out and support us. Each table needs to have a flier to present to the waiter.Fliers will be passed outside of many of the doors on campus, but you may also print out. Just click on the picture linked to this message and click print!

Hope to see everyone there tonight to share in great food for a great cause!

T.G.I.Friday's
2335 Dixwell Avenue
Hamden, CT 06518
(203) 407-0111

Nicaragua Alternative Spring Break 2009 - MAT Delegation

Science, Mathematics and Language Arts Units

All the members of the Quinnipiac University MAT Nicaragua Service-Learning Team, under the guidance of Dr. Cheryl Kerison, will present the Sixth Annual Teacher Training Conference from March 14, 2011 to March 16, 2011 in León, Nicaragua. The MAT Nicaragua Service-Learning Team will conduct workshops in the areas of Mathematics, Science and Language Arts.

The topic of the Science workshop for the 2011 conference is motion, force and energy. The workshop will provide the Nicaraguan teachers with useful experiments and hands-on learning activities they can share with their own students.

The theme for Mathematics is the coordinate system and ordered pairs. The workshop will focus on teaching children how to plot and identify ordered pairs.

The Language Arts Team will focus on folklore. The workshop will assist teachers with teaching children how to use oral tradition as a tool to communicate effectively. 

Successful Event

THANK YOU to everyone who came out to support our ASB Almost Midnight Breakfast event!!! It was a huge success! We had music playing to create an enjoyable atmosphere and a slideshow with pictures from past trips. 

At 7:30pm when we started there was a line for pancakes all the way to the SGA office in the upper area of the cafeteria. 

There was another line on the opposite side for omelettes made to order.

Everyone there enjoyed delicious chocolate chip and/or sprinkle pancakes, omelettes, muffins, brownies, fruit, orange juice and coffee. 

David Ives created his infamous animal pancakes! 

It was wonderful to have the chance to talk with people waiting in line and while I was making them pancakes.

 This event was a fantastic way for the whole Nica Team to get to know each other better and work together to serve everyone.  

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