Jamaica Cultural Immersion Program, Spring 2016

So, waaaaay back last summer, after I had returned from England, I was browsing through Hollins' website when I came across the Jamaica Cultural Immersion Program, or JCIP for short. I was instantly struck by how amazing it looked. It was run by Jeri, who I had worked with in the context of my service work and who I had a great deal of respect for. 

So, after a bit more time of poking around, I interviewed with Jeri, paid my deposit, and signed on to the program. Then, once I arrived back at school, I began my year-long internship for the trip. Here is some of the information and values of the program that I absolutely loved and were what drew me in and kept me enthusiastic all the way through:

The project was service based, which was cool, but it was the kind of service project it was that interested me, because it implied that unlike many service trips, which claim the difference you make in 5-14 days will be huge, Jeri continually made it clear that were not going to be playing white knights. I was instantly intrigued, because when you do a lot of service work, especially abroad, there's always this ego trip a lot of people have, which that is the first world's countries' job to "rescue" the third world countries. And this simply isn't true -- primarily because it's tremendously insulting to the culture you're entering into. Jeri always made sure to state over and over that it was *their* country and *their* culture that we were stepping into, and they have systems in place, and don't we dare forget this. She also made sure to note that we understood that even though the work we were doing was important as a cultural exchange, that it benefited us more than it benefited them -- though they certainly were very kind to us! -- particularly because we were only there for eight days. 

Our internship class met every week for two hours on Fridays. In it, we discuss geography, literature, economics, politics, and history, among other things. Then there was the community aspect. We were required to do 25 hours of service at an amazing tutoring center for low income kids, and in a retirement community. I learned a LOT from both places and the people were really lovely in both. 

But the internship is a story in of itself, so my next post will skip right to day 1 of Jamaica. 

In other news, and to finish off this post, stay tuned for not only the Jamaica updates, but additional content on Europe, travel tips, minor content about trips within the US, and maybe even some flash backs to my time in Peru. 

Have a great summer!

~ Emery