Spring 2015 LASP Alumni Newsletter

I N T E G R A T I N G F A I T H , S E R V I C E , AND S C H O L A R S H I P

LASP NEWS

LASP’s mission is to cultivate a Christ-centered community of critical thinking learner-scholars from multiple disciplines that seeks to expand global awareness and integrate Kingdom values via experiential learning in the Latin American context, challenging students to respectfully engage our host cultures and strive for academic excellence.

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How to follow along with us throughout the semester and more information on the program

Spring 2015

Oración de Mora Current LASP alum David Perspectives

Of Things That Nicaragua Trip Alumni Updates Aren’t A peek into our Read about what LASP So Different two week Nicara- alumni are doing,

Crowe’s poem about Reflections on our A reflection from the gua Study Trip his community im- current semester first few weeks of P. 6 P. 3-4 our Spring Semester mersion experience P. 5-6 P. 2

where they are in the world, and where their passions lay.

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Looking Back

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Know someone who might be interested in LASP? Want to follow your friends or students on their journey during the semester? Get a taste for what LASP is all about by following our blog! We post regular updates on semester activities, as well as student reflections and “Mission Statement Mondays” from LASP alumni.

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Looking Back Oración de Mora (inspirado por Doña Noire Aguilar Fallas de Providencia de Dota) Señor, Padre bueno, Gracias por este día.

Gracias por cada día que nos regalas.

Gracias por el sol, por el viento, por la lluvia, por la tierra, por la familia, Señor.

Que cada familia tenga lo que necesita.

Y si les falta algo que tú se lo lleves, Señor.

Gracias por amarnos aunque no lo merecemos.

Gracias por ser un Dios que nos oye y que nos escucha.

Perdónanos de nuestros pecados, Señor, Los que hemos cometido consciente y sin consciente.

Que siempre recordemos compartir con aquellos que tienen menos y que amemos a otros como nos amas a nosotros.

Que no nos falte nada material ni espiritual.

Que sigamos tu voluntad en todo que hacemos.

Y pedimos que el dolor nunca nos sea indiferente, Señor.

David says what he really learned from the Mora family is that showing God’s love in a tangible way means sharing what you have with those who have less than you and by helping those in need. He learned that this can be done well by building relationships, as this helps you to see others in the image of God, with their own families, dreams, desires, and lives.

Gracias por estos alimentos que vamos a recibir.

Que estemos sinceramente agradecidos.

En el nombre del Padre, el Hijo, y el Espíritu Santo, Amén.

By David Crowe, Covenant College student and LASP Fall 2014 alum.

He completed his community immersion experience with the Mora family on an organic farm in Providencia (in the mountains of rural Costa Rica), where they grow and produce about 90 products. During his three weeks with the family, he participated in various activities on the farm, including helping them build a new dining room for their lodge, which is a part of their tourism business.

Prayer of Thanksgiving Our heavenly Father, Thank you for this day.

Thank you for each day that you give us.

Thank you for the sun, for the wind, for the rain, for the earth.

Thank you for family, Lord.

May every family have what they need.

And if they are lacking in anything may you take it to them, Lord.

Thank you for loving us even though we don’t deserve it.

Forgive us of our sins, Lord, those that we’ve committed knowingly and unknowingly.

May we always remember to share with those who have less than us and to truly love others the way you love us.

May we not be lacking in anything material or spiritual.

May your will be done in all that we do.

And so we ask, Lord, that pain would never be indifferent to us.

Thank you for always hearing us.

And for this food we’re about to receive may the Lord make us truly grateful.

Amen.

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Oración de Mora

Current Perspectives

Current Perspectives Take a look at what is happening at LASP this semester.

Students engaged an indigenous perspective with Gloria Mayorga on the KéköLdi reservation on the southern Caribbean coast. The tales of the suffering and perseverance of her people was inspiring to us all.

We made the world our classroom as we traveled to Limón, visiting pineapple, banana, and coffee plantations along the way to discuss the major effects of monoculture agriculture and an export economy on the well-being of Costa Rican society.

Students explored potential responses to the issues we have covered in our Core Seminar. We have been particularly intrigued by Roddrick Sell’s approach to organic farming, seeing God incarnate in his garden and respecting the earth with sustainable agricultural approaches.

Current Perspectives

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Current Perspectives

We have completed the Core Seminar and the first block of Spanish classes in Costa Rica. Students have been challenged to engage with a variety of influential themes in the Latin American reality with a critical eye as to where they fit in the picture and how their personal faith convictions require them to respond. We have welcomed numerous speakers into our LASP classroom to share their perspective with us on international relations, poverty, discrimination, economics, politics, and more! All the while, students have been participating in perhaps their

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most challenging and engaging learning setting: their Costa Rican host families.

Students have been welcomed in as part of the family in order to better understand the Latin American reality, and many beautiful relationships have been built.

LASP has also recently returned from our two week study trip to Nicaragua, where students critically engaged in the political/ economic challenges of the region while living with Nicaraguan host families. While students have been significantly challenged throughout the semester to critically engage in many demanding academ-

ic and personal reflections, we have been blessed by our Christian community to process and grow in a loving family of believers. We all continue on our journey of discovering who God is and what our role is in bringing his Kingdom to Earth. And of course, we have had a lot of fun along the way! We are excited to begin our concentrations this week, taking on Environmental Science, Literature, Latin American Studies, Faith and Praxis Seminar, and our final immersion experiences outside of San JosĂŠ. Please pray for us as we continue on our journey together. ÂĄPura Vida!

Current Perspectives

Alumni Relations

Of Things That Aren’t So Different

By Tyler Struyk, February 6, 2015

Tyler Stuyk (The King's University College) getting to know another culture with his Nicaraguan host sisters I feel that so often when folks like meyoung, adventure-seeking, poor students (or anyone for that matter)- come to another country or culture, it is the things that are different the “beautiful,” the “gross,” the “exotic,” and the “charming” that we notice first and that we bring back with us as stories and photos. The “different” stands out like white on black or a meatball in the fruitpunch (I’ve personally never seen this and hope not to but it suffices for effect). I could go on and on about all the “strangeness” around me every day, not only in the food, sights, smells, and sounds, but even in the behavior and attitudes of people themselves. Now I realize I might be leading you to believe that I think these things are wrong, but in fact I think they are a large part of what expands our worldviews and even the capacity to have compassion, resolve, and love, especially for the “other.” However, when I am the “other” in the “other’s” context, it is the differences that challenge and break down my own preconceived assumptions and understandings of the world to

Of Things That Aren’t So Different

build a more inclusive and holistic un- are the little things that are the same, derstanding. like breakfast, lunch, and dinner and a universal enjoyment of the three. Or a Now this is something I have been remorning shower, a visit to a local bakery flecting on lately and it’s fairly convolutto treat oneself to doughy goodness, ed in my mind, so I apologize if it spills and jaywalking. But when I talk about through my fingertips that way too. similarities, it’s not the little things I am From my first few days of orientation, thinking of, though those have come to when absolutely everything felt differbe very important for a sense of groundent and was new and unfamiliar, one edness. It’s the bigger, often less tangiquote from the director of my program ble but more real, similarities I am thinkstill pierces my thoughts: “Be slow to ing of. judge, for the strangers and the strange all around you are experiencing your But allow me a little more background strangeness.” How true that is, and how so you may understand in part why I often it seems to me that the average have been thinking of such things. The North American abroad might never LASP program is about opening sturealize that it is THEM that is the strange dents’ eyes to the realities of Latin and the different. With the advantage of America; the problems, the successes, having been given this insightful hint of the language, the people, the history, advice, I have been keenly aware to be and the relationship with North Ameriaware, though I don’t always make it ca, among other things. And much of the past the first “aware” of my own out- classes in these subjects have brought landishness in this place. Now I won’t on the realization of the terrible things bore you now with all my displaced pe- we humans are capable of doing to each culiarities, for you know many of them other militarily, economically, and sowell within yourself as everyday habits cially in the name of democracy, ecoand reactions, but let it be enough to nomics, growth, and safety. There is no know that they are very real and present justifiable excuse to do all these things everyday, even though I might not al- because others are so “different” or ways perceive them. “alien” that the civitas, subconsciously or not, assent to it.

Up to this point I realize the title may seem fairly misleading. But it was neces- Continued… sary to talk about the importance of the differences before realizing the contradiction of the title. I have been here in Costa Rica now for almost four weeks and have barely scratched the surface, but it has been enough to scratch away some of the veneer that shimmers as a blinding wall of otherness. And underTyler Stuyk with his host dad/pastor neath it all, it is not so different. There Marvin and his grandfather.

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Looking Back

Emilie Palmer (Point Loma Nazarene University) enjoying one of her many adventures with her host mom in San Jose Maybe all too often we live and travel and experience with a kind of cultural myopia that only lets us see the little things at our feet that are the same while everything in front of us seems different and unknown.

And maybe all too often we think in a way that identifies the similarities in the different, rather than the differences in the similar. The first view allows us to visit, enjoy something exotic from our tiny

viewpoint, and leave before it inconveniences us, keeping the term “responsibility” nicely wrapped up for our little world at home. The second view calls us to realize a global responsibility with all humanity and to realize joy, not suspicion, at differences. But maybe you already knew that. It’s in the Book. And it’s this second meaning of similarity I mean. Under the veneer are people who also know what it is to laugh with their friends, not because something is funny, but because they are experiencing the joy of fellowshipping together. Under the veneer are people who also see the sun and the stars and sometimes get the shivers for pausing to think about how tiny they really are.

Under the veneer are people who have the same desire to be loved and to love and to live in relationships with others.

And under the veneer of all those differences are people who are people too.

Jon Thornton (Wheaton College), Tyler Struyk (The King's University College) , and Leah Collett (Redeemer University College) learning to dance with Julie Marimon’s (Biola University) host-aunt

lead to hate, prejudice, injustice, poverty, violence, and war. Then again, maybe it’s not the differences we need but the similarities. With this frame of mind, we can humble ourselves and finally pick up those glasses we’ve been given from Him and see that maybe it’s really our little things It’s our differences that should give us the that are different and the big things that compassion and wonder we need to work are the same. toward a better, inclusive global community, but so often it’s the differences that

Nicaragua Trip

We returned from our Study Trip to Nicaragua during the first week of March, but the students are all in agreement that they left a piece of their hearts with their host families in the communities of Las Sierritas, El Viejo, and Chinandega. After being challenged by our speakers in our class conferences in Managa, the students took their learning “to the field” where they got to experience a little snippet of the Nicaraguan reality with their host families, far removed in many ways from the typical, limited exposure to Nicaragua that most outsiders gain access to. We are grateful to our host families and the Hermanos en Cristo denomination.

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Of Things That Aren’t So Different, Nicaragua Trip

Alumni Relations Julia Rosso, SP ’14 says she is still living with more questions than answers. She has decided not to follow her prior career path in Real Estate because it was entirely un-fulfilling, and has opted to look for something else while finishing up her B.A. in Biblical Studies (with a minor in Latin American Studies). She says her family is gradually understanding the pain and sin of poverty and injustice in this world, and she praises the Lord for their willingness to see. Because of this, they have been seeking to help her find a venue to fulfill her duties as a Christian with the passion she has for justice. Julia now works parttime in a bi-lingual law firm as a receptionist where she can keep her Spanish relatively fresh.

Amanda Cummings, FA ’13 is graduating from Southern Nazarene University in May. Shortly afterwards, she plans to teach English as a Foreign Language abroad.

Erin Anderson, FA ’12 graduated from Northwestern College (Orange City, IA) in May 2014 with a degree in social work and Spanish. After a summer of selling ice cream in her hometown in northeast Iowa, she moved out to Oakland, CA as a member of the Lutheran Volunteer Corps.

She is now halfway through her year of service, working at an agency in San Francisco, CA called Project Homeless Connect.

There, she does direct service with individuals experiencing homelessness. She is still in contact with her host family from Teotecacinte, Nicaragua and she uses her life lessons learned in Costa Rica daily as she works and lives with a diverse population in a place that is so different than what is familiar to her.

Malcolm Fitschen, FA ’12 is currently enrolled in the Robertson School of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, VA. He is pursuing an M.A. in Government with a concentration in Inten-

Alumni Relations

tional Relations. In addition, he works at Regent in the Office of Alumni Relations.

Malcolm and his wife are approaching their one year wedding anniversary.

Isabella Silva, SP ’12 graduated last May from APU with a degree in Sociology. She now lives in Chiang Rai, Thailand, working at a missions organization and coordinating their online school.

Haylee Hancock, FA ’11 is going on her second year in Peru. She is currently the volunteer coordinator at a Spanish school in Cusco. However, she plans to travel a bit in April and then go back home to hopefully not get a boring job. She is thinking about becoming a Zumba instructor or a salsa teacher, and is hoping to keep as much contact as she can with Latin people. She sends “Muchos saludos desde Cusco!”

Victoria Litardo, FA ’11 has made her way back to Kansas City from Florida, where she spent her time working as a case worker resettling Cuban refugees with an organization called CWS. She is engaged to her former co-worker from the same agency, Craig Marcklinger, and they plan to be wed in July of this year. Victoria plans to work at Trader Joe's as she pursues grad school opportunities and her passion for visual storytelling, while Craig has accepted an apprenticeship with an organization called Cultivate KC, where he will serve as a farm crew member. They have a passion for the agrarian lifestyle and have hopes of moving abroad after some time to work with NGO's in teaching & supporting subsistence farmers in their small businesses.

Allison Harp, SP ’11 moved last year to Bend, OR to work on her masters in social justice from Kilns College. She will finish her thesis in May and graduate in August!

She currently works full time as a freelance wedding photographer.

Britney Villhauer, SP ‘10 completed her

master’s degree in Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership with an emphasis in Global Studies in Education in December 2013, and is now on her second year working with LASP. In the summer, she will be returning to work with Sustainable Summer, a high school educational program in Costa Rica on sustainable living.

Paige Woods, SP ‘10 continues at Frontier Airlines and was very recently promoted to Manager, Property Accounting.

Craig Miller, FA ‘08 and Anna Miller currently live in Minnesota where Craig is working as a Resident Director in Student Life at Bethel University. They welcomed their first child, Samuel, into the world this past December 11th.

Laura (Frey) Reyes, FA ’08 and her husband are continuing to enjoy newlywed life in Costa Rica! Laura works as a Program Coordinator for LASP, and Israel is currently on the job hunt.

Esther Knicely, SP ’06 recently moved to Miami where she is living and working in a low-income community doing missions and community development work with an organization called InnerCHANGE. She’s excited for the new adventure and says she’s also really looking forward to getting into the salsa scene down there.

Jamos Mitchell, SP ‘06 and wife, Emily, welcomed their first child, a beautiful baby girl named Harper Burton on June 16, 2014. The Mitchell family resides just outside of Chicago, IL

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Alumni Relations Joshua Sheats and Tiffany (Hillman) Sheats, FA ‘05 are expecting baby #2 in June of 2015! Joshua has recently established Radical Personal Finance, a daily, hardcore personal finance podcast. You can find it in the app store and listen on your phone.

Steve Wiltjer, FA ‘05 is living in Grand Rapids, MI with his wife, Rachel Bush.

They opened a coffee shop in April of 2013, and are working hard at contributing to their city. They had the opportunity to travel to Lake Atitlan last year for a vacation with friends, and loved being back in Central America.

Erin Conklin, SP ’05 graduated in December with a master's degree in Community Psychology and Social Change from Penn State Harrisburg.

Krystal Finseth, SP ‘05 and her husband Nathanael would like to announce the birth of Luuk Nathanael on October 21.

Luuk was welcomed home by big brother Micah and sister Kaatje.

Lindsay Musser, SP ’04 just finished helping film a mini –documentary with Hôpital Albert Schweitzer and resident Alexi Matousek https:// www.youtube.com/watch? v=H48Su17Ubj4 Alexi received an award from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston for his research project.

Josh Byeman, FA ’03 Ava Sterling Byeman was born on Josh’s birthday on 12/9/2014 and has brought the family much joy. :) Josh is on year 10 of teaching in the same public high school and continues to enjoy its rewards and chalP. 8

lenges and is able to use his Spanish daily!

Abby DeLong, FA ’03 and Jared Irvine welcomed Marielle Patrice into their family on October 5, 2014. She joins big sister, Trevi and big brother, Joah. Abby continues to teach Spanish at a high school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Caleb Howard, FA '03 and his wife Sarah started a new blog this year called SoMuchHope.com. He's also trying to finish revising his first book by the end of June. www.SoMuchHope.com - "Live Life Alive" #marriage #parenting #excitingGOD #restGIRLhope #ManUpMen Andrew Hoeksema, SP ‘03 and wife Holly moved from Santa Cruz, CA to Chico, CA in Summer 2014. Andrew is now the Director of College Ministries at Bidwell Presbyterian Church, immediately adjacent to California State University, Chico.

A highlight of his job is encouraging students to engage in international and service opportunities, as well as accompanying them as they debrief their semesters abroad once they return.

Tiffany Pulci, SP ’03 has moved from Iringa, Tanzania to Abu Dhabi in the UAE for a 5th grade position with the American International School of Abu Dhabi.

Jennifer Gardner, FA ’02 On July 25th, 2013, Jennifer married her best friend, Kelly, at Reflection Lake in Paradise Park, Mount Rainier National Park. Kelly serves as a firefighter and a RN. Jennifer serves as a Nursing Informatics professional ,driving positive change to impact care at the regional level.

Kristina (Kline) Whiting, SP ’02 works for Servant Partners www.servantpartners.org which is an organization that works in urban slum communities around the world seeking community transformation through Jesus. She and her husband and their two daughters recently moved to Managua,

Nicaragua with their organization.

Leif Oldert, SP ’00 After six years of life in Australia and becoming Aussie citizens, he and his wife decided to return to Salt Lake City in November. He says “If anyone is dropping by SLC be sure to drop a line.”

Kellie O’Connell de Alvarez, FA ’97 is living with her husband Orlando and three boys in Goshen, IN. Joel Esteban is the newest addition to their family and was born November 17, 2014. Kellie currently works as Guardian of Integration (Site Manager) of Maple City Health Care Center that serves a large Hispanic population in Goshen.

Kimberly (Chambers) DeHass, SP ’92 moved with her family from Millersburg, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio in July 2013. They have 3 sons and 1 daughter. Their daughter was adopted from Guatemala in 2007 and their oldest son will graduate from New Albany High School this June, and will be attending Ohio State University in the fall.

Kevin Hale (Haworth), FA ’90 married Matthew Hale on April 11, 2014. They live in Amsterdam, where Kevin has lived for the past 16 years.

David Hagenbuch, FA ’88 started an organization called Mindful Marketing, which aims to encourage ethical marketing. The concept is summarized by the “Mindful Matrix,” which he uses as a tool for discussing marketing ethics with students in his classes and with other groups. The website for the organization is www.MindfulMarketing.org.

Alumni Relations

Alumni Relations

LASP Staff

stay connected.

Anthony Chamberlain — Director Javier Arguedas — Faculty Jessica Sanchez — Administrative Coordinator Laura Frey — Program Assistant Britney Villhauer— Program Assistant

Alumni Relations

As always, you can also connect with us on: Our Website: www.bestsemester.com/lasp Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/LatinAmericanStudiesProgram Twitter: @LASP_Tweets Blog: laspcostarica.blogspot.com

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