Becarios de Caldwell caminan entre tallos de maíz para subir una pequeña montaña en la periferia de San José Villa Nueva. En ocho días, los becarios de Caldwell se enamoraron con el campo de El Salvador, el país natal de Lisbeth Arias, uno de los becarios de Caldwell." />
Cortesía de Lisbeth Arias
Becarios de Caldwell caminan entre tallos de maíz para subir una pequeña montaña en la periferia de San José Villa Nueva. En ocho días, los becarios de Caldwell se enamoraron con el campo de El Salvador, el país natal de Lisbeth Arias, uno de los becarios de Caldwell.
Caldwell fellow Lisbeth Arias, a senior in fashion and textile design, knew that she wanted to find a way to contribute to the program that has shaped and enriched her experience at N.C. State. For inspiration, she turned to her native El Salvador.
“A lot of people tend to leave El Salvador out when they think of Central America, because of the violence and because it’s a small country, but there is so much beauty there that I really wanted to show them,” Arias said.
Gino Lerebours, a junior in Statistics, was one of four other students who traveled with Lisbeth to her hometown in San José Villa Nueva, about two hours from the capital city of San Salvador. The trip lasted eight days and the Caldwells celebrated the the New Year in a new culture.
Lerebours never thought seriously about traveling out of the country before college, despite a desire to see more of the world. But, he says, through the Caldwell fellows, he found the perfect avenue to get introduced to international travel in an in-depth way, through home stays and getting to know people outside of a tourist setting. In recent years Caldwell students have taken service trips to Mexico and Guatemala, but Arias wanted to show them her own culture.
“Most of them haven’t gone to El Salvador, so I wanted to bring them over to learn about me and my family,” Arias said.
According to their website, The Caldwell Fellows builds on the legacy of Chancellor John T. Caldwell by investing in students selected in their first year who share a passion for growth, learning, and serving others. Later this year, the Caldwell Fellows will also be traveling to Ethiopia for a service related trip.
“The best trips, the ones that tend to be more successful, are the ones started by students,” Lerebours said. It is an emphasis on student leadership that makes the Caldwell Fellows one of the most known scholar programs at N.C. State.
After staying with the Arias family for eight days, the Caldwells certainly had a better understanding of Salvadoran culture, particularly family values. “What I learned is that what makes a family or people rich doesn’t stem from what we have as far as material things. It sounds cliché, but it was definitely true,” Lerebours said. “You could tell that Lisbeth’s family was really close, that they loved each other.”
For Arias, it was gratifying to watch the reactions of her peers as they experienced everything from fresh homemade beans and pupusas, to the 20 minute firecracker show in the streets, to milking cows outside the town.
“It just reminded me of how I felt when I came back to El Salvador when I was 16, and how people looked at me when I first came. It was really cool to see these open-minded, humble students experience who I am and where my family is from,” Arias said.
According to Arias, the Caldwells had an extremely positive reaction from the community, clearing the way for future service work, particularly in the cantones neighborhoods. These communities are made up of families living in houses usually made of cardboard that they find.
Arias hopes to return to San José Villa Nueva with more Caldwell fellows in Spring 2015 to build a house. Arias says this will depend on decisions made by the rest of the Caldwell community and what funds they are able to raise for future trips. “I would frankly be one of the first people to sign up to go back down there,” Lerebours said.