Volunteer View
Marielle Laprès and Gena Robinson
Just the other day, I received an invitation for a high school reunion. It is hard to believe that I should be ready to start attending reunions. It is even more difficult for me to believe that the LCS Philo students that I met ten months ago are preparing to graduate and embark on their own endeavors.
I was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana and graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2006. While South Bend was a great place to grow up, I knew that I wanted to make a difference in the world and that I could be of more use elsewhere. I was fortunate enough to grow up in an environment where service to others was de rigueur. As a child, at St. Joseph’s Grade School, my teachers made service projects fun. In high school, the projects were not only fun, but they were also slightly competitive. Over the course of food drives, soup kitchens and building projects, I was imbued with the notion that we have an obligation to give back to our community. At Notre Dame I found a wonderful service community, and upon graduation THP presented the unique opportunity to live and work in a community where I would be useful, but also where I could learn more than I could ever teach.
On my first full day in Haiti, I met Marielle Laprès. We were both assigned to work in the compost pile and she was very patiently instructing me on the tricks of the trade. She and her classmates were good teachers, and I now proudly tell my friends and family about my new pick-ax handling skills! Not only was Marielle a great teacher at the compost heap, she has been a wonderful teacher in the Ti Ekol program, a literacy program for children and adults from the LCS neighborhood.
I was first introduced to the Philo students under the Haitian sun last August, but I really got to know them as their English teacher over the past two semesters. In the first week of class, they all wrote essays for me about what they wanted to do in the future. This class of future doctors, architects, actresses and advocates has continuously amazed me. Together we explored love, tragedy, and the complexities of Shakespearean English in Romeo and Juliet, and had vigorous debates about race, poverty and other global issues as we read Cry, the Beloved Country.
They might not all become doctors, lawyers or Shakespearean scholars, but there is not a doubt in my mind that these students have all benefited from their time at LCS. Whatever they decide to do after they graduate, they will bring with them a formidable education, an inspiring sense of community, and an insatiable desire to serve their fellow citizens and the rest of the world. They will leave as true Louverturians, and I will be forever proud to have been a part of this community.
