Just imagine being unable to be educated on your own culture and language. For children in Chiapas, Mexico, this is their reality.

Chiapas is one of the poorest parts of Mexico, and because of this, education is difficult to come by for most children. They can attend school through the government or families can choose to home school. But, these children are still unable to learn about their own indigenous Mayan culture and learn the language.

To help, the Periclean Scholars class of 2008 teamed up with Schools for Chiapas, an organization that works to renovate schools and train teachers in the Chiapas community.

For the past three years the students in Project Pericleans have raised funds to help this community. Recently, they reached their goal of $15,000.

While they are relieved to have reached this goal, there is much more to the project than funding.

“They [the Chiapans] don’t want charity,” senior Laura Sinden said. “They want you to join in the struggle with them.”

Eight members of the class will head to Mexico during Winter Term and aid in the renovation of a school where the foundation has already been laid. They will also participate in smaller projects like painting and gathering items for the school and meeting some of the Chiapan children.

Senior Lauren Durr enjoys the fact that this group was working on this project from day one. “It’s good to see that we struggled for something,” she said.

Durr said the class did research and found the Schools for Chiapas Web site and was impressed with the project and wanted to become a part of it. Beyond building a school, the class will be helping to retain the Chiapan culture and will allow children to learn their own language.

“It’s impressive that they chose something that is not the easiest to do,” said adviser and associate professor of communications Michael Frontani. “They jumped in with both feet. My hat’s off to them.”

The Chiapans don’t speak Spanish, and are instead part of the Mayan culture, which creates an incredible language barrier these students have had to work through.

After working on this project for three years, the class is ready to get to work on the finished product.

“It’s so exciting to be able to see the tangible product,” Sinden said, in anticipation of their trip.

Because the group will be in Mexico for three weeks, they will experience what it is truly like to live in the area.

For one week in January, they will be joined by the Redwoods, a socially conscious insurance group outside of Raleigh. Instead of just backing the project with funding, they were extremely involved in the process.

“They’ve been really encouraging this whole time,” Sinden said, “They really want to be involved.”

One of the best parts of this project for Sinden, Durr and the other members of the class is that it is not finished after graduation. The alumni association continues to work at sustaining the school.

“We will have a lasting impact,” Sinden said, “This project isn’t gone because we are.”

Reporter: Laurie Craft - 12/05/07