Shin's Blog

Just this past week, a group of volunteers from Immanuel Presbyterian Church (McLean, VA) returned to El Progreso. Throughout the week, we worked at Villa Soleada on agricultural projects, biodigester construction and block laying for the children’s home. We also visited IHNFA in San Pedro Sula and spent a few hours at the beach in Tela. It has been four years since the church had come back to Honduras. Not surprisingly, many of the kids remembered Jim Stover, a returning member. It was a wonderful week.

If your church is interested in sending volunteers to Honduras, please contact us at trips@studentshelpinghonduras.org.

It has been many decades since Honduras has played in the biggest sporting event in the world, the World Cup. The entire nation will be watching the three games that can change it all. I’m assuming that all stores, malls, government offices and small businesses will be closed temporarily during the game days. For one month in Honduras, people of all ages, class, political parties and race will be joining hands to cheer their country on.

If Honduras wins just one game, it will be considered a huge success. If they make it to the second round, it will be considered historical. For such a small and impoverished nation like Honduras, the odds are completely against them. If they make it to the second round, Honduras will most likely face Brazil, the current favorites to win the tournament (in my opinion).

Have you scheduled a World Cup party yet? There is a big one going on at Dupont Circle in DC for the USA-England game this weekend.

Each service trip is so unique in its own way. This past week, volunteers were quieter than our last group at first. But by the end of the week, this group turned out to be one of the loudest and most fun groups we’ve ever had! It was a diverse group from the US, Peru, Puerto Rico, Bolivia and Asia. I had a great time getting to know them and was so glad they were able to be a part of the inauguration of the learning center.

You can join us in Honduras by clicking on the service trips button above.

What does it take to end poverty in a village like Villa Soleada? We can learn a lot from Geoffrey Canada’s organization, Harlem Children’s Zone. Although the problems that children face in Honduras are very different from the problems in inner-city US, there is at least one thing in common. According to Canada, we need a comprehensive approach to help children reach their full potential. It’s not enough to provide nutritious meals, build more classrooms, provide new textbooks, or give scholarships. According to Canada, you’ve got to do whatever it takes to remove all major obstacles in a given community that can prevent children from succeeding. And most importantly, social change doesn’t happen overnight. Canada has focused his energy in Harlem for many decades now and doesn’t plan on going anywhere else for now. We can apply a lot of his philosophy and strategy in Honduras.

On Thursday evening, I made a speech about SHH at the Aquia Lion’s Club. After a delicious dinner, I talked about our organization and answered questions. They made a $500 donation and expressed interest in coming down to Honduras. Many Lion’s Clubs in the region have been supportive of our organization. In fact, the Lioness Club in Fredericksburg was one of the first groups that donated to us, way back when I was in college. If you would like me to make a speech at your school or civic organization, please email me at shin@studentshelpinghonduras.org.

The George Mason chapter organized a successful benefit bar night at P.J. Skidoos in Fairfax, Virginia. They raised nearly a thousand dollars on the busy Thursday night. I attended the event and had the pleasant surprise of seeing many friends from the area that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Benefit bar nights can be a ton of fun and can raise a ton of money.

There are simply two things you have to do to organize a successful bar night. One, get a venue that is easily accessible (PJ Skidoos is right near the GMU campus) to your target audience. Two, market your event all over the internet, especially on Facebook and eVite. You probably want to send a few text messages or phone calls to remind everyone the day before the event. Special thanks goes to Henry R. for bringing a ton of friends, Katie M. for getting the venue and setting everything up, and Hieu P. for taking a ton of great photos (http://www.hpadv.com).

I wasn’t aware of the magnitude of the Earth Day rally in DC. Jess from the GW chapter had been talking it up all week but I hadn’t made up my mind whether to go or not. After I tuned into the live webcast, I decided to jump on the metro to join the masses. I wore my favorite Honduras jersey, which is a trick I use to meet people who are 1.) either from Honduras, 2.) have some kind of connection with Honduras, 3.) know me through SHH. This move never fails– I ran into 2 UMW alumni who recognized me, talked to a Honduran lady who commented on my jersey, and two W&M alumni who knew me through SHH. Airports are always a good place to wear the jersey, since it’s a good conversation starter when bored. Have you worn your Honduras shirt/jersey this week?

This past Friday, I went to Georgetown University to help out our chapter members there during their weekly bake sale. They have been selling delicious baked goods every Friday on campus for the entire semester. Hard work, great weather and large groups of prospective students visiting that day made the event a huge success. They raised $198 in 3.5 hours ($57/hour)! !

What is amazing about the chapter at Georgetown is that all of their veteran members are abroad or taking the semester off (with the exception of Kasper, who will soon be joining the GW chapter as a grad student!). This means that underclassmen like Arielle have been stepping up big time to keep the momentum going at the heart of DC. In fact, they have even been coordinating events with the other chapters in the area, like AU, GW and Catholic. On another high note, Ray B., the chapter founder of Georgetown, is helping students at Rutgers start a chapter there.

Today, I visited Amanda at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. She went on our service trip in January and is getting a chapter started on her campus. She is studying social work, which seems to be a very popular major for many of our volunteers who come to Honduras. We brainstormed together how we were going to get people involved at her school at Panera (my place of choice to get work done and get unlimited refills on tea/coffee). She has this magnetic personality and seemed to knew just about everyone in Panera.

I had the opportunity to visit South San Francisco High School where UMW-SHH alumni Amanda Lemco is now teaching Spanish. She brought SHH to the west coast and started a chapter with some of her students, most notably, Kelly Marston who is the chapter president there. What a group they are!

I did six presentations in one day and talked about SHH to 500 students. The young chapter there is selling coffee and doing all kinds of fundraisers to help the kids.

Our family lived in San Francisco and Oakland when we first arrived in the US and left for the east coast shortly after Cosmo was born in 1985. It was great to be back for the first time since then to the place where I spent my early days in the US.

Warmer weather awaited Taylor and I when we arrived in North Carolina. This week, the two of us visited Davidson, UNC-Charlotte, High Point, Elon, UNC-Greensboro, Guilford and NC Weslyan. We talked to many students and met interesting people on the way. North Carolina is a huge state with many schools yet to be visited.

As our staff in Honduras wrapped up their spring service trips, Taylor and I finished our east coast tour. He leaves for Paraguay to be a part of Peace Corps later this summer. He has been a true road warrior, eating PB&J and sleeping on couches for an entire month with me.

Taylor and I spent our week in New York and New Jersey. We visited NYU and CUNY-Hunter College during our visit to Manhattan. Kelly Ryan, an SHH alumni from UMW, showed us around the city and let us stay in her apartment in Brooklyn. We held a brief presentation at NYU and talked to undergraduate and graduate students there about SHH. I loved my time there in NY with Kelly but was reminded how hard it is to find parking in the city

Afterwards, we visited Rutgers in New Jersey. The entire campus was preparing for a Dance Marathon to benefit children with cancer. Our short visit to NJ ended after our visit to Princeton, where Justin Simeone (former UMW chapter president) showed us around. They seem to work him hard there for the PhD program. I don’t think the man slept at all while we stayed over.

On Wednesday night (International Women’s Day), Care International hosted a movie showing in select theatres about women’s issues around the globe. We had some time before John was going to be home to let us in, so Taylor and I went to watch the show. More importantly, SHH spends most of its resources working with girls (and women) in Honduras through our scholarships, micro-lending and other programs. We knew the showing would give us valuable insight about our field. The showing revolved around a great book I recently read called Half the Sky, written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The entire book is about turning oppression into opportunities for women worldwide. It’s one of the best books I have ever read and was recommended by my long time mentor, Greg Stanton. He is constantly telling me about great books to read. I highly recommend reading this new book for everyone to learn about the power behind the “Girl Effect.”

Taylor and I spent the entire week in Boston visiting Boston College, Boston University, Suffolk University, Brandeis University, Tufts University, Wellesley College, and Emerson College. We talked to many students who are excited to start up chapters in the region – we had a cup of coffee during each meeting which probably didn’t help us fall asleep at night. Up in the Boston area, there seems to be a college or university on every corner. Despite the number of college students, we had a hard time finding cafes with free WiFi even with our GPS. I found that very strange, and missed the likes of Hyperion Cafe in Fredericksburg.

Taylor Hall, the former chapter president at UMW, has been volunteering his time by accompanying me in the east coast tour to promote SHH. He has until May to be with SHH as he is waiting to hear back from the Peace Corps. The two of us spent the entire week in Philadelphia, going to Temple, Drexel, UPenn, Arcadia, St. Joseph’s and La Salle. We promoted SHH in these campuses and talked to seven students on a one-one-one basis over coffee. We’re already in the process of creating chapters at Drexel and Temple. Taylor and I have been hopping around staying in different people’s couches and eating PB&J and cheap street food. He has generously offered us to use his car until we obtain a used vehicle later this month (hopefully).

Students and alumni from across the nation gathered this weekend at the George Mason University campus. We Skyped with the kids, showed a video and launched the new mySHH fundraising pages. After a quick pizza break, students broke off into workshops. Each workshop was hosted and organized by students from a different university. Topics ranged from organizing fundraising events to retaining club membership on campus. The George Mason chapter had organized all of the logistics, including reservations, food, drinks, free lodging and of course, three jugs of delicious coffee. They worked day and night to get things ready, especially Katie and Jack.

It was so great to see all of our volunteers who had come on our different service trips, as well as members that I met for the first time. It was especially great to see Kori and James from Clemson because they had to drive more than 500 miles to get there!

The spring fundraising campaign officially began after the Summit. Volunteers like Mike Glasner have already been getting donations through their personal fundraising pages.

For the next few weeks, I will be traveling across the east coast visiting 40 universities with Taylor Hall, an alumni member who had some time on hand before departing for the Peace Corps later this summer.

Volunteers from Operation Honduras began arriving on different days after re-scheduling their flights due to the snow storm that hit the east coast. They are an amazing group of professionals from Pennsylvania that has been coming to Honduras for many years to build schools, churches and orphanages. They are a mix of business people, engineers, teachers, construction workers and even a former Navy Seal. They are hilarious, fun and very hard working. Their goal this week is to lay as many blocks for the children’s home that we broke ground on just last month.

The SHH Summit was postponed until February 20th due to the record breaking blizzard! Bobby, Taylor and I were snowed in and stayed in the house all weekend working away on our laptops and enjoying the Super Bowl. We worked with students from GMU to cancel food orders, drinks and other arrangements they had made for the event.

Our students, always so resourceful, decided to turn this unexpected chain of events into an opportunity. Chapters all across the east coast have been raising money for SHH by shoveling snow in the neighborhoods around campus. So far, I've heard from Emerson at UMW who mobilized a group of a dozen members to grab their shovels. Taylor and I shoveled our driveway so that I could get the car out to catch my flight to Honduras tomorrow. I didn't think it would take us an entire day.

The SHH Summit is only seven days away. In 2006, we had our very first Summit in a small apartment building with just five students. This year, we can expect to see a thirty to forty fold increase in that number. Chapter meetings across campuses this week will mainly be about this long awaited event. The George Mason University Chapter is working day and night to make sure that every detail for the event is being organized. Student leaders from across the east coast are organizing their presentations and workshops. Others are arranging rides or flights to get to the Summit from their home town or campuses.

I'm on the phone and Gmail around the clock answering last-minute questions, but the vast majority of the work lies in the hands of our volunteers. The amount of organizing that our student volunteers are capable of doing would blow away anyone watching.

I spent a lot of time this week emailing back and forth with Katie, one of the amazing student leaders from George Mason University. She is working with a team of students to organize the up and coming SHH Spring Summit at their university.

Hundreds of volunteers and former volunteers will come together at GMU on February 6th to share their knowledge and experience organizing on campus. Student leaders will be making presentations to share best practices and lessons learned in a small group format. It's going to be great to be able to see volunteers who I worked with in Honduras! Many of them will be driving or flying in from far-away states.

I will be flying back to the US for ten days on January 31st to help the GMU chapter prepare for the long-awaited Summit!