We have been making a lot of progress with our partner Hope for Honduran Children. After traveling with them during fake break, Meredith, Christian, and our mentor April Post have all maintained communication with Karen Godt and the boys in the transition home. Karen has recently sent the class detailed information about the transition home and how it is run, as well as potential projects for our class to complete with this organization. While our class does not yet have a specific focus, we believe Hope for Honduran Children is a good start and by making more partnerships, our focus will emerge.

The Hogares Sanos committee is currently planning the events for the year for Burlington’s Hispanic community. The goal for the semester is to transfer the organization to El Centro de Español since they have the resources to make it more sustainable and are able to get more support for the project.

There was a lot of discussion this week about the potential for future projects and goals of each committee.  We worked to develop the mission statements for each of these committees.  For the Fundraising Committee, we decided that those individuals will work to keep track of the class funds and how we are spending them, especially with the development of work done by Special Events and the committee working on the Sundance film.  The fundraising committee will also takeover the Cookies to Go-Go project in the future, which we are hoping to make a once a month, regular event on campus.  For both the Technology and Librarian Committees, goals will include making class-wide access to resources more efficient and easier to utilize.  Overall, we will be working toward streamlining the work that each committee has already been doing and working toward developing future plans so that they function efficiently.  We are using the nomination of committee heads to encourage communication between every committee and ensure that the needs and concerns of every committee is being addressed and assistance and brainstorming can also be provided by different class members.  Through the Steering Committee we hope to increase Pan-Periclean communication and work toward a more unified.  Additionally, we are going to try to really promote the creation of an Alumni Relations Committee to really make the most of past Pericleans, from both the work they have done to the connections that they have made.  Lastly, in connection with the work of Steering and Alumni Relations capitalizing on interpersonal relationships, we really want to incorporate Hogares Sanos projects into our class.  The ultimate goal of Committees this semester is to promote that the work of individual committees should encompass the goals of the Periclean Scholars initiative and not simply limit ourselves to just our work within Honduras.  There is much work to be done to promote civil engagement, sustainability and the betterment of society through connections with one another and many smaller tasks.

-Jen and Arianna

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Class: XI

Country: Honduras

Hello! There is exciting news from the eleventh Class of Periclean Scholars. This Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, two scholars and our class Mentor will be traveling to Honduras through one of our local partners, Hope for Honduran Children.  H4HC is a non-profit that works to create opportunities for the youth in Flor Azul and four other communities. They work to get boys sponsors and scholarships to create better futures for themselves. More information can be found on H4HC’s website.  Meredith Berk, Christian Gilbert, and professor April Post have been making the last few preparations for the trip over the past two weeks.

They arrive in TGU, Tegucigalpa, at 12:30 PM the same day, and will travel to H4HC’s compound immediately. They will spend the following week interacting with locals in the villages supported by H4HC and will get to interact with community leaders, H4HC leaders, and many others. They will be capturing video footage, recording important dialogues and taking photographs of the local environment and facilities. We hope that by using this information we can start to see in which ways we can benefit and interact with these communities and partners.

The three will produce a short summary video about their trip upon their return. We will take the pictures and interviews and create profiles for the communities they met, as a way to organize the information.

Finally, we are still actively fundraising to pay for this trip. If you want to help, you can visit www.gofundme.com/periclean. We would be greatly appreciative of any financial assistance.

Stay tuned, there will be more to follow when they return.

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