This summer, the 2007 Hamilton Award Winners traveled to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, known by local people as the city of “Xela,” for the Second Annual Guatemala Leader Week.

The 19 students who attended the trip expected to volunteer and reconnect with one another, but they received so much more. During this life changing adventure, the attending scholars experienced the incredible poverty and strength of the Guatemalan people.

Arriving in Guatemala
After a long day of traveling, the group of ’07 Hamilton Scholars arrived safely in Guatemala City. As they waited in the airport for their fellow Hamilton Scholars to arrive, they each exchanged stories about their first year at college, old friends reconnecting after a year a part.

Together, they boarded vans that drove them out of Guatemala City.  Cars honked at every turn and the fumes of diesel flew into the open windows of the vans as the drivers blasted Latin music through the speakers.  Squished together, the group looked out the windows at Guatemala’s largest city. 

Soon, the roads began to empty of cars, and the vans began to leave behind the fumes of the city.  The lanes of the highway narrowed. Houses were spread farther and farther apart.  The vans began the climb up the volcanic landscapes of Guatemala, curving around the sides of huge inclines.  Looking out the windows, the students looked as evening fog hung in the valleys of the rolling farm lands the lay below.

Curving and winding, they finally reached the top of the incline, able to see for miles and miles the various volcanoes that dotted the horizon. After five hours of traveling, the vans finally reached Xela.  The group unloaded from the vans, welcomed to the volunteer home base by the Cross Cultural Solutions staff.  Exhausted after hours of traveling, the Hamilton group crawled into bed, filled with anticipation for what Guatemala would bring.

Xela
Each night the group would gather to eat an authentic Guatemalan meal and to reflect on their time in Guatemala.  Through various group discussions each Hamilton Scholar had a chance to wrestle with the intense emotions of seeing and experiencing so much poverty. The sessions gave the students an opportunity to discuss what they found surprising, frustrating or empowering.

“I really got a better understanding of just how great my life truly is and how blessed I am,” said an attending student. “I will take that back with me.  I will remember this experience for the rest of my life.”

Guatemala has experienced a civil war that has only recently been resolved.  Tensions still remain and the effects of the war are still fresh in the minds of many Guatemalans.  However, Hamilton Scholars found that, in general, the people remain hopeful.  They raise and educate their children, they work their fields, and even though they live in a nation that is politically shaken, they survive on the incredible strength and character of its people.

“Our driver from CCS, Willie, has a degree in Chemical Engineering and an MBA, and yet he cannot find work.  It is so sad.  The very infrastructure of Guatemala is broken.  He has to drive the vans for CCS because there is no work,” said an attendee.  “The people of Guatemala do not have the luxury of working hard and finding success. I feel that this week has given me incredible perspective about the world I never would have experienced through any other trip.”

On the night before their final day in Guatemala, George Cox, President of Hamilton Friends, led a session on leadership. The presentation focused on the importance of cultural understanding in leadership .

“Mr. Cox said to us, ‘You may be in a meeting some day, maybe twenty years from now, and something will come up about global poverty or about Guatemala, and each of you will have this experience and this knowledge.  As a leader you must understand that the world goes beyond the US.’ The lessons we will take home from Guatemala will remain with us forever.  I feel that this knowledge will impact how I lead and what I will stand for in the future,” said an attending student.

“To hear the situations over the past week that indelibly touched my peers was heartwarming and memorable,” said Jordan Franks, Leader Week attendee. “Many of us were crying as we recounted the boy who said softly, ‘remember me’ as we got in the departing van.”

Returning Home
As the Hamilton Group prepared to return home, exhausted and moved by their trip, they took time to quietly reflect on their experiences in Guatemala. 

In one week they gained and experienced so much about the world, each other and themselves.  A true leader must be able to look at the world around them and be able to see the many perspectives of power and poverty.  Our young leaders were given the opportunity to look outside their comfort zones and gain a deeper perspective on who they are and what the world needs from them as future leaders.