Jordyn Dunacusky

International Experience Country:
Mexico
Cohort Year:
2014
Home Institution:

Arcadia University

Heinz Programming Area:
Children, Youth, and Families
International Experience Summary:

Jordyn Dunacusky volunteered at two different schools in Guadalajara, Mexico for four weeks through an organization called Projects Abroad. The project she participated in was called School Sports. One of the schools she worked at was Niños y Adolecentes en Armonia; that school was for children ages 5-14 and about 40 kids attended the school. The government funded it for kids from underprivileged areas of the city that could not afford to go to a better school. She worked with other volunteers at the school taking the kids to the park for gym class, playing soccer with them in the mornings and assisted with other classes in the afternoons such as Capoeira workshops and drawing classes. The other school Jordyn worked at was a secondary school where the kids were from middle class families. She assisted the physical education teachers and taught the kids games they had suggested to be taught such as American football and basketball. She got to experience the difference in attitudes towards education between kids that were underprivileged and kids that could afford to go to a good school. Jordyn also got to speak with a lot of the kids and learn more Spanish. In her free time, Jordyn got to experience the Mexican culture by going to markets, spending time and speaking with the people that lived there, eating many different foods and living with a host family that could show and tell her of places to visit and things to see. 

Community Engagement Experience Summary:

The event started with a presentation about sex trafficking in each of our respective countries. We spoke about laws regarding trafficking and how our countries complied with these laws. We then brought about the fact that it is a local issue and spoke about trafficking in the Philadelphia area. There was a speaker from Dawn's Place, a local organization that helps trafficking victims, and a real life trafficking victim shared her story with the group. After that, there was a speaker who gave some interesting facts and statistics about trafficking. People who attended the event then took place in simulations acted out by student volunteers of what could possibly happen to a trafficking victim in each of the countries that were traveled to. We then all came back together and had a round table discussion about trafficking and the event as a whole.