20160728_125208 (school photo)Greetings Global Glimpse family and friends! Our name’s are Stella Nguyen and Gina Ni. Today we shared the role of El Lider Del Dîa. The theme for today was education and we visited the high school Modesto Amijo and shadowed Nicaraguan students. As co-leaders, we worked very hard to divide the responsibility for the best of us and the group as a whole. Education day was presented to us with the purpose of understanding the similarities and differences between U.S. education and Nicaraguan education. As Malala Yousafzai said, “ So let us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty, and terrorism, let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution.” We feel, as an entire whole, education is very important and the setting students are placed in hold the power to affect academic outcomes.

Our day consisted of a later wake up call at 7:00am to be ready for the day. We had about an hour to prepare ourselves for the day, which came to be an omelet breakfast at Comedor Imabite. Our first academic seminar required us to compare and contrast the statistics given by Elly and Daniel between U.S. education and Nicaraguan education. We were given the order to choose the most shocking statistic in our minds and the group came to a common agreement that the rate of high school drop-outs was much higher than any of us would have guessed. After the academic seminar, we were given approximately an hour and a half of exploration time. The groups split up due to the places we wanted to explore, so groups wandered the streets of Nicaragua to their hearts content. Majority of the group was able to try a much anticipated and popular coffee shop called Casa Del Cafe. After free time came to an end, we all headed to Comedor Imabite to have lunch. As soon as lunch was over, the group took a public bus, which was very hectic and crowded, to Modesto Armijo high school to begin an experience that will leave an impact on the way we view education. Unlike the usual format of public education in the U.S., Nicaraguan public schools set a dress code of white shirts and blue bottoms for both males and females. I, Stella, personally believe that the mandatory uniform drew the path of a new outlook on the way students are presented at school. During the school day, which was approximately two and a half hours, delegation Leon 1 was placed into different classes of all varieties of topics. The delegation was able to listen in and experience the teaching ways of Nicaraguan professors compared to U.S. teachers. We, Gina and I, were able to experience Physical Education in Nicaragua and we both came to the conclusion that the people here were much more fit than the people in the U.S. because of how much physical activity was expected of them during their class. After school came to an end, we all took the public bus back to the hostel and were left with 45 minutes of free time to self-reflect on our experience. After self-reflection was over, we all ate dinner. As a daily routine for all of us, we directly head to Facultad de Derecho, UNAN-Leon for English Tutoring.  English tutoring with different levels of ESL students is always an activity the delegation looks forward to because we are all placed in a position of higher responsibility to make sure that the students assigned to us clearly understand the lesson of the day. Nightly meeting then began at approximately 8pm where we all conversed about our day, what we enjoyed and hope to improve, and all the things we appreciate from each other. At the end of the day, I learned that being leader of the day means more responsibility, more stress, more management, more organization, and ultimately the mind of a leader are the necessary factors in order to be successful not only for yourself but for the group. As a leader, you must lead by example and demonstrate to your peers how a leader should compose themselves. Our most surprising moment of the day was how sports hold the power of uniting any group of people to communicate and bond merely by understanding how to play the game. Despite what ethnicity, language, skin color, etc. that you label yourself as, a common activity, or in this case sport, can make you feel as if there are no physical or educational differences between one another.

As a sum, receiving a glimpse of the life of a Nicaraguan student was vital to our individual and group growth. This trip has taught us so much about who we are, who we want to become, how we will handle situations when placed in a new environment, and ultimately, learning to compromise with different types of people from different backgrounds. We all sincerely appreciate the attention of our loved ones to our blog and look forward to hearing your thoughts daily.