Students to volunteer in Guatemala

Some students consider coffee a necessity before an 8 a.m. class, but few take into account the labor, the time or the means by which coffee makes its way to Bloomington.

Senior Elizabeth Cockrell is directing a trip this year to Guatemala to help with a community’s needs at a local coffee plantation. The group will leave Saturday and return March 22.

“Although it is during spring break, this trip is going to be an amazing experience,” Cockrell said. “Not only will we be helping out, but we will be learning a lot about history as well as touring beautiful cities.”

The volunteers will be traveling to the city of Comunidad in eastern Guatemala to contribute their time and labor on a macadamia nut and coffee plantation called Nueva Alianza, owned by 40 Guatemalan families.

For the first five days of the trip, students will volunteer from 8 a.m. until early
afternoon.

The volunteers will have nights off to experience city life in Comunidad, Cockrell said.

The last two days of the trip will be spent in the city of Antigua, two hours away from the nut and coffee plantation.

“The time spent in Antigua will reveal the vacation aspect of Guatemala,” Cockrell said. “We will be shopping, visiting mine ruins and hiking in an active volcano.”

Trip organizers Andrew Steinberg and Josh Egan co-founded Encountour, an organization meant to help make international volunteering more accessible to college students.

After they participated in a few international volunteer trips while in college at Yale University, Steinberg and Egan attempted to organize a trip of their own, but it turned out to be very time-consuming. Steinberg said they hoped to offer a cheaper way to volunteer abroad.

“We wanted this organization to give students a chance to see a different aspect of life,” Steinberg said.

Cockrell said Encountour assigns tasks to each volunteer, so each person might not be working directly on the plantation. One could help out with education in the schools while another sorts coffee on the plantation.

Traveling abroad is an exciting experience, said freshman Olivia Elsner, a potential volunteer for the Guatemala trip. She said luxury vacations are fun, but she is especially excited about the idea of interacting with the people rather than watching from a distance.

“This is a great opportunity to enrich your entire college experience,” Cockrell said. “Volunteer work in another country is an invigorating experience, and young people can learn a lot from a struggling community like Guatemala.”