International Service Learning Opportunity
The Intercambio Cultural Maya Program, which has been actively serving the rural Maya people of the Yucatan peninsula for nearly thirty years, will resume active programming this winter under new sponsorship from the University YMCA on the campus of the University of Illinois. Intercambio will be part of a renewed and substantial expansion of the Y’s Global Engagement Program. Intercambio was selected as one of five programs from an impressive group of over 25 proposals submitted to a “Global Engagement Task Force” at the Y. (for those new to the program, Intercambio had to suspend programming last year due to financial challenges experienced by our previous sponsoring organizations).
The Intercambio program will now be housed in the University YMCA, and staff support provided by Y staff members. Ramon Celis, our partner, and the guiding force of Intercambio in Mexico is fully on board and eager to get things back in action.
This means that shortly after Christmas this year, another group of North American volunteers will travel south to live and work for a week on service learning projects in a rural Maya village in the Yucatan Peninsula that have been organized in advance by Ramon and other Intercambio leaders. Following the work experience in the village, the group will be able to travel to other nearby sites in the state of Quintana Roo to visit ancient Maya ruins, a small colonial city, and spend some time on the coast in a small fishing village.
Fore more information, visit http://www.intercambio-maya.org/.