College of Education
Northern Illinois University
Graham Hall
DeKalb, IL 60115
Phone: (815) 753-1948
Fax: (815) 753-2100
cedu@niu.edu
“Now, when I see someone put down a dollar for an order of fries at McDonald’s, I think, ‘Wow, if everyone skipped just one month’s worth of fries and gave that money to a young girl in Guatemala, it would send her to school for a whole year.’ My experience there has definitely changed me, made me a lot more charitable.”
Dan Rosenberg (pictured in top photo) speaks with a wisdom far beyond his 21 years, a wisdom gained from witnessing first hand the extreme poverty and the amazing kindness of the Guatemalan people.
Rosenberg, a special education major from Palatine, spent 10 days in Guatemala in May 2008. He was one of a group of 18 young men and women who are members of the Eta Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega, a service fraternity – and the oldest continuing fraternity – at NIU. Pastor Diane Dardon of Lutheran Campus Ministries, whose husband is from Guatemala, coordinated the volunteers as they worked to help build an elementary school in Retalhuleu, one of the poorest regions in the world, where more than 16% of the people live on less than $1.00 per day.
After arriving in Guatemala City, Dardon took the group on a brief tour, which included a stop at the city dump, where Rosenberg saw people living in unimaginable poverty.
“People actually live there and earn a living from reclaiming and reusing items,” said Rosenberg. “It was an experience I’ll never forget.”
After this sobering experience, Rosenberg’s group boarded a bus for the five-hour ride to their hotel, just a short drive from the elementary school building site.
“We were 4 to a room, pretty tight quarters, and didn’t know much Spanish, but everyone helped us. The meals they provided were amazing, and on the last night we were there, they hosted a fiesta for us that included piñatas and a marimba band.”
A typical day began with 6 AM breakfast, then the short ride through the countryside to the school, where the volunteers worked about 4 hours, then took an extended lunch break in the heat of the day, before returning to work another 4 hours. They dug flood prevention troughs, painted, hammered, and were “jacks of all trades” for the next 10 days. They also visited another school built by volunteers, where they were greeted by smiling children shouting, “Gringo!” Rosenberg said the teachers at the school were only about 18 years old, and the walls were bare, but everyone was enthusiastic about education.
“This was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. It gave me an entirely different outlook and makes me appreciate what I have,” said Rosenberg. “I benefited so much more from this than the people of Guatemala did. I have been incredibly fortunate to receive such strong support from my family and my professors. I want to be a reflection of that.”
Rosenberg has two brothers; his older brother, Brian, a graduate of George Washington University, is traveling through Central America on a full immersion program and his younger brother will start college in Iowa this fall. His parents met at NIU, where they were advisors in their residence halls. After graduating in December, Rosenberg hopes to begin teaching and would like to live abroad, perhaps as a Peace Corps volunteer, at some point during his career.