Students performing service in Belize over winter break

A group of 14 Cornell College students will travel to San Pedro, Belize, from Jan. 2-9, 2016, to perform service at an elementary school visited in the past by Cornell education students.

This is the second Alternative Winter Break sponsored by the college’s Career and Civic Engagement Center. In March Cornell students will participate in a 12th year of Alternative Spring Break trips. Cornell currently ranks 3rd among Breakaway Spring Break Chapters nationally for percentage of students participating, with more than 100 students on spring break service trips in 2015.

Students organize and lead the trips. The Belize group will be working with Ambergris Caye Elementary School, which is one of the schools students visit during education professor Jill Heinrich’s courses on comparative education in Belize.

Cornell College junior Leah Bossom, one of the three student leaders for the trip, said students will be helping teachers at the school.

“We will be teaching lessons in science, goal-setting, theater, and computer science, as well as aiding teachers in their classrooms,” she said. “We will be running our own after-school program and putting on family nights as well.”