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Hi Everyone! Thank you for checking out my blog page and for following my journey to Casa Guatemala, a school located on the Río Dulce in Guatemala’s eastern jungles.

I am very excited to get started! I officially leave on May 27 out of Newark. I will be traveling roughly six hours to get to the school!

For those of you who don’t know, I have been preparing for this project for over a year in the JUNTOS Ambassador program. I have created a detailed proposal, budget, and fundraising plan to allow this project to come to fruition.

With JUNTOS, I have been to Mexico and Guatemala, and have also done local outreach here in New York City and San Francisco. My work with this organization sparked my passion for social justice, and inspired me to pursue a degree in social work! Through my studies, I have learned many of the intricacies of social injustices and the oppressive structures in place in our world. My goal as an aspiring social worker is to continue to learn about these issues of human rights so I can be better equipped to catalyze change. As a dancer, I aim to give to others the gift I was given as a young girl: the gift to explore my world through movement. Finally, as humans, it is our ultimate responsibility to be empathetic, to listen, and to learn from our fellow humans.

The primary goals for this project include developing a dance program to fit the educational needs of the children at the school, foster a sense of motivation and self-confidence through movement, and encourage young students to explore new ideas within the context of dance. At Casa Guatemala, I will be exploring all of these goals and will be challenging myself to think critically.

As I prepare for this project, I reflect on what it means to do social work and why art is so important for change. While I do have some travel-jitters (as is to be expected), I am mostly filled with excitement.

I can’t thank my family, friends, JUNTOS, mentors, and donors enough for their support and words of encouragement. I’m ready to embark on this journey!