Jillian Knox, right, colors with children during the alternative spring break she took to Honduras with the Catholic Campus Ministry at the University of Arkansas.
Jillian Knox, a 19-year-old from Mountain Home, Ark., had never been out of the United States without her parents before and it took a bit of convincing for them to allow her to go to Honduras last March.
The University of Arkansas student chose to spend her spring break as part of a Catholic student group that volunteers each year with Mission Honduras International. Experiences such as these termed “alternative spring break” have become an important part of service learning at college campuses across the nation.
“My parents were concerned, especially my dad. But, he talked with other people going and looked at the pamphlets and decided it was OK,” Knox recalled. “On Friday the 13th we flew to Honduras. The next day we painted at a school. Beginning on Monday, we worked and played with the children. It was quite an experience. It gave me a greater appreciation for our schools in America. You hear people say they don’t have enough resources, but these people really don’t. The trip called me to do something like this again. I’ve always wanted to teach somewhere I would be needed.”
Knox is a childhood education major who will be a junior this fall in the College of Education and Health Professions. One of the instructors in the childhood education program was Theresa Cronan. Cronan has served as faculty advisor for Catholic Campus Ministry, a registered student organization at the University of Arkansas, for several years. She and her husband, Paul Cronan, also a University of Arkansas professor, have accompanied students to Honduras during spring break for 10 years, along with co-leader Ruben Baltz.
“This is an alternative to going to Florida or some other vacation spot, which is fine, but some young adults want to experience another culture and be of service,” Cronan said. “They are freshmen through graduate students from all majors, and ones who have gone previously help us as student leaders. They get a feel for whether they really want to do service. They raise funds to go, and the church pays part of the cost.”
Catholic Campus Ministry is a part of the St. Thomas Aquinas University Parish on campus. The ministry has also taken student groups to south Arkansas and to south Louisiana after Hurricane Rita. Although she retired this spring from teaching, Cronan expects to continue her volunteer role with Catholic Campus Ministry.
Some students embark on a mission trip intending to put the skills they’re learning in college to work, but after arriving they realize what’s important is to do whatever the local community needs help with, Cronan said.
“We have four meetings over the fall and spring semesters to prepare the students for the experience,” she said. “We want them to understand we are not necessarily going to the area to fix anything. We are there to help, to give a hand up, that’s the philosophy of the mission.”
Mission Honduras International operates schools from first grade through high school levels, housing for university students and a center for abandoned women and their children. In addition to those children, some orphans and other children who live nearby also attend the mission schools. A volunteer center houses visitors who work at the schools and with the women and children.
“At the school, the little rooms were packed with chairs,” Knox said.
She helped the children learn to use computers.
“They were so excited about the computers,” she remembered. “But these were really old models. The screens were so hard to see. The keyboards had letters missing, but we helped them practice typing and to learn the basics.”
Knox knows enough Spanish that she could communicate pretty well with the youngest students.
“Every day we worked until late afternoon, and then we played with the kids,” she said. “The boys love soccer, and we also read and colored.”
The volunteer center was very modest but seemed like a five-star hotel compared to the living conditions of the Hondurans, Knox said.
“We had running – but cold – water and electricity most of the time,” she said.
The students also dug post holes and helped build fences.
Because of the expense of receiving text messages on a cell phone, only one person kept a phone on to send messages to the church and receive messages to distribute to other volunteers, she explained. They did some sight-seeing and visited the coffee plantation where several of the orphaned boys work.
Children at the mission school have more advantages than other Honduran children, Knox and Cronan explained. They have a chance to go to college, and one trained as a doctor and returned to help the people.
“Educating one child can affect 15 to 20 people in a family,” Cronan said. “The children value education. That’s one of the things that impresses us. They know an education is not a given. It humbles us to see what we take for granted. These are people with nothing, but they share their spirit. They are very industrious.
“After Hurricane Mitch in 1998, we toured the tent cities where temporary homes were set up,” she continued. “It was interesting to see the students’ reactions. One was almost angry at us for letting him see the devastation, but he ended up going back.”
