Belize Program Expanding; Deadline Is Feb. 1 for Student Applications

Engineering Project students hiking in the newly established Belize national park

Students helping establish a neighborhood park for local children

Teaching the Hog Call to the local school children

Agriculture Project students and elementary school helpers, with raised garden beds

Students working with a local fifth grade class

Agriculture Project students planting sustainable crops for the local farm

“Community Day” celebrations in Dangriga, Belize

Photo Submitted

University of Arkansas students worked with residents of Dangriga, Belize, on a community garden project in 2011.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas’ service-learning project to help the town of Dangriga, Belize, has passed its five-year mark, and the university has recommitted for the long term, according to Todd Shields, dean of the graduate school and international education at the UA.

Students have until Feb. 1 to apply to take part in this summer's international project in the Caribbean country, one of the few in which English is the primary language. Faculty leaders will prepare student teams during the spring semester to travel to the town of Dangriga for three weeks, from May 16 to June 9, to prepare and implement service projects related to agriculture, business, community health, ecology, engineering and literacy. Financial aid and scholarships are available for interested students. Application information is available at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/belize. 

The Belize program began in 2006 and is one of 23 faculty-led study abroad programs being offered this summer. The office of study abroad and international exchange coordinates with the faculty leaders, students, and host country coordinators to insure each program’s success.

One student who evaluated the program after participating in it during summer 2011 wrote: “You get to really engage in the community and make friends with a lot of local people in addition to learning more about your particular academic major.”

Shields is looking forward to seeing many more university students study abroad.

“Programs like the community development project in Belize have proven to be life changing. They give our students invaluable experiences we think they need, as well as giving them an opportunity to actively address the needs of others,” said Shields. “We hope to offer our students more of these types of interdisciplinary service learning opportunities across the globe.”

Amy Farmer, professor of economics in the Sam M. Walton college of business, was recently appointed as overall project coordinator for Belize and hopes to expand the global community development model to other countries. The Belize initiative is administered in partnership with Peacework Inc., an organization that facilitates international development projects around the world.

“When the project was started in 2006, the people in the community of Dangriga, Belize, wanted at least a five-year commitment from the university and Peacework. They had seen so many organizations come in, work for a while, and then disappear,” explained Farmer.

"They needed to hear we were committed," she said. "Now, they want us to stay and we want to stay. This is a 100 percent partnership with the community. Our projects would not be sustainable if we were not addressing the needs they have identified. We offer the skills and enthusiasm of our students and faculty. We let them know what we can provide, and then work in tandem to develop and implement projects. The higher purpose of any single project is to get things moving so that the community can engage and run with it on their own for the indefinite future. But we come up with our wish list together.”

Several projects are planned for this year's program:

• An engineering team will replace a failing concrete bridge in Dangriga with culverts or a new bridge that the student team will design.

• The engineering team will design and construct a small tourism booth or building for Dangriga.

• Students in a clinical health group will work with community partners including ministry of health officials, health-care professionals, women's groups and local related organizations.

• Students working with literacy service-learning projects will work with elementary school through adult students in a variety of settings to help them develop and improve their reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.

• Projects for the public health initiative group will strengthen students' understanding of determinants of human health, as well as aspects of chronic and infectious disease prevention. Potential projects include environmental health and sanitation, prenatal and infant health, sexual health, HIV/AIDS education, women's empowerment and hand-washing education.

• The projects of the business team may include microfinance lending in which students create and analyze business plans for Belize small businesses requesting loans; business and economic literacy in which team members  go into primary and middle school classrooms to teach children basic economic and business concepts; tourism projects; women's cooperative support, in which university students work with a local group to support their vision to manufacture products and use the revenue to improve the lives of Belizean families; and park development, in which team members  help to build or improve a local park.

“The interdisciplinary nature of this project enables it to serve many needs of the community,” Farmer said. “Creating a business plan doesn't do much good if infrastructure doesn't exist, and children can't learn if they are hungry or sick,” she said. “The interdisciplinary aspect also helps our students understand how disciplines interact with other disciplines in the workforce. They learn the importance of building relationships and how important creativity and leadership skills are. The Belize project motivates them.”

Another student who participated in the 2011 program echoed those thoughts, writing: “I feel like I understand another culture very well and really got the swing of life in Dangriga. I connected to several people, had some wonderful experiences, and got a taste of what international development (like Peace Corps) would be like.  I feel like I have a much better understanding of issues that people here face on a daily basis.”

More information on the Belize program and other study abroad opportunities is available at the study abroad website.