Thursday, November 19, 2009

head of the class

Last week I attended a couple days of workshops in Coroico. Presented by the Inter-American Institute for the Collaboration of Agriculture, those of us in attendance were employees of the UAC-CP and CARITAS Coroico--a Catholic, social service agency whose extension projects nicely compliment the five academic areas at the College.

Graduates Richard Agramont, Paola Surco, and Victor Hugo Flor work in social service extension projects for CARITAS Coroico. Miguel Manuel Manrique manages the College's entomology lab. They were a few of the UAC-CP alumni present at a recent workshop in Coroico.

As my eyes wandered a bit during the presentation, I found myself counting the number of UAC-CP graduates who were in attendance. Fifteen. Out of approximately fifty attendees, 15 were graduates of the College. Many of them, in fact, were students I had in class back in the day--an ironic twist that didn't escape me as I would occasionally awaken from day dreaming to find a couple of them sitting next to me taking copious notes.

The same students whose homework I used to grade, whose food cooperative fees I used to collect, whose futsol games I used to cheer on...are now my colleagues. Now, I thought in the moments when my mind wandered away from the theme of project development, we are working with them to create change, instead of for them. It definitely left me with something to think about during two long days of workshops.


For those of you on Facebook, check out Carmen Pampa Fund's page with recently updated photos of UAC-CP graduates.

1 comment:

Sue Wheeler said...

Wow! UAC-CP graduates who are now colleagues. And 15 of them in one room! Incredible. Thanks for sharing, Sarah.