BRITTANY
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
BRITTANY
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
Thursday:
This was the first opportunity we had to step foot inside the Mariposa Foundation and meet the girls who not only attend the foundation, but also working alongside with. Upon entering the foundation, I noticed the use of bright colors painted on almost every wall possible using women empowerment as a canvas. We started with an ice breaker activity and formed a circle directly behind the foundations gates, covered with sand. The staff and girls (also called “mariposas” meaning butterflies in Spanish), formed us in a circle and we participated in a game to introduce our names and a word in Spanish that began with the first letter in your name. After two more ice breaker activities, we moved onto our first Spanish lesson of the day. The Mariposa Foundation believes in holistic approaches while teaching in the classroom, meaning engaging and personal development submerged into their lessons. The Mariposa Foundation for Girls is located in Cabarete, less than five minutes down the road from where were staying. The foundation’s mission was inspired by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals including eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing the child mortality rate, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases to ensure environmental sustainability and developing a global partnership for development. These goals set by The Mariposa Foundation depends upon the education and empowerment of women and young girls. (http://www.mariposadrfoundation.org/) Mission: To educate and empower girls to create sustainable solutions to end generational poverty. Vision: To create the model that can be adapted around the world for a holistic girls’ education and empowerment program to end generational poverty. The foundation was founded in hopes to provide girls a setting outside of school to develop life skills necessary to live a happy and healthy life. The mariposas who attend the foundation go to a private school for half of the day, and spend the other half at the foundation. Mariposas whom are selected to attend the foundation, are awarded a scholarship that covers costs for their private school, and for the foundation. To the mariposas, spending time at the foundation means learning how to cook, dance, sew, play an instrument, how to dance, make art, play sports, speak English, reading, writing, and the essential: how to be strong and fearless women. It is a rare opportunity that many girls, and even boys, continue their education past middle school because of a lack of high schools close to where they live. Typically women are expected to stay home and look after their younger siblings, cook, clean, and even have their own children at young ages. The Mariposa Foundation does not believe in this cultural norm and encourages girls to receive an education and make their dreams become reality. The foundation took part in a campaign in November called, “Yo no soy tu mamacita,” meaning, “I am not your mamacita.” This allowed the mariposas of the foundation to express themselves freely about how they envision themselves as a female in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. After a tour of the wondrous foundation, which included a large stage for the girls to perform their work, a pool, a courtyard for movement and learning, and several funded classrooms where girls learn about various life skills and topics, I and several other members from my group played baseball with some of the girls. Out of all the sports the girls were taught how to play, this was their absolute strong suit and kicked our butts! This play time was one of the most memorable parts of my day because although there is a language barrier, we were able to connect in a different way; by playing sports. This experience is evidence how important play is in an educational setting. After a delicious lunch, which included yummy avocado of course, we were able to interact with the girls who attend the foundation additionally. Despite the differences in language, we again bonded through something other than language. Some of the girls enjoyed our hair and kept touching it throughout the day, so before it was time to leave, they took my hair brush I had brought with me and started braiding our hair into the most beautiful designs. Again, through a different skills like playing with one another’s hair, we bonded through this moment without having to use language whatsoever. I left the foundation wanting even more and it was only the first day there. Friday: Our second day at the foundation was nothing short of another inspiring afternoon. Due to the holidays celebrated here in Cabarete, there were not as many girls at the foundation that usually are. Despite the lack of attendance, six other girls from the group on Thursday joined us again and will be our teachers alongside their own teachers, teaching us Spanish. These girls are all in their teens and reflect strong and amusingly sassy personalities. Sometimes it’s the people younger than yourself that go unnoticed, but I look up to these six girls in more ways than one. A personal goal while I am on this trip and working at the foundation, is to gain a stronger sense of confidence in myself like how these six beautiful girls have exposed me to. To begin our first actual Spanish class, we played games in their courtyard to build some vocabulary words. I found it the easiest to comprehend what the teachers were saying when they used hand motions and seeking out familiar key words that I have learned prior to piece everything together. I find their holistic approached to be more useful and learned Spanish at a faster rate than when I did in middle school and high school. We were all broken up into three groups based on our levels of Spanish. I, of course, was at the beginner level among six others girls on the trip with me. Our teacher’s name is Mary Jane who does a phenomenal job in and out of the classroom. I also found myself admiring Mary Jane and her pedagogies during our Spanish class. Although we were completely submerged into their language on our first day, she never once let us drown. Her charisma, patience, and love of life is what intrigued me most as a future educator. There were also three mariposas in the classroom with us as well and a girl named Emily, sat next to me for majority of the time and helped me by pointing to different words and letters on the worksheet I had in front of me to communicate with me. This was another moment that I will forever carry with me and share. To be able to communicate with someone who does not speak the same language as me through the use of pointing to words and letters bewildered me. We began with different fruits and brushed up on our colors (even thought I already knew them and felt “advanced” for the first time since I arrived in the DR). We then moved onto actual sentences and how to communicate in Spanish, specifically while at a restaurant our out shopping. Once we caught on, Mary Jane used real life and brought us to their little shop where the three mariposas from our class pretended to be the vendors, and we were the customers. We had to communicate individually to them in Spanish and either ask how much something was, what an item was, and what we were paying them with. By connecting what we just learned in the classroom, Mary Jane used a real life experience by taking us outside to their shop and becoming a customer to use the Spanish we just learned. But wait, it gets even better! Our homework was to use the language we learned and apply it to another actual occurrence when we attend a restaurant or go shopping in Cabarete! Luckily, that same night we all went out for dinner at a local German restaurant and was able to successfully order my meal all in Spanish. Before saying goodbye for the day, Mary Jane had our class sit in a circle outside and reflect on how our day was, the class in specific. The mariposas were also asked by Mary Jane if they, in turn, learned anything from us and their responses made my heart feel even fuller than it had the day before. She said that we were all great students by asking a lot of questions and responding to Mary Jane to inform her we understood. Timid, this mariposa had a smile from ear to ear while Mary Jane translated to us in English. Although being submerged into their language was overwhelming, ending the day in such a way as this, is what left me with wanting to learn even more. Another long term goal I planned for myself is to become fluent in Spanish due to my sudden undying love for their culture and people.
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AuthorJunior | 716 | Alpha Epsilon Phi | Music and Traveling Enthusiast | Concert and Movie Goer | Lemon Addict Archives
March 2017
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