



































Alternative Spring Break Jamaica!  Service Learning and Civic Engagement in a Developing Country


Global Partners in Education Journal  April 2013, Vol. 3 No. 1, pp. 49-56 
www.gpejournal.org  ISSN 2163-758X 

 

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Alternative Spring Break Jamaica!  

Service Learning and Civic Engagement in a Developing Country 

…although college is only one phase in any individual’s lifelong process of moral and civic development, it can be pivotal,                                                              

leading to new ways of understanding the world and one’s place in the world, providing new frameworks through which                                                                

later experiences are interpreted, and equipping the individual with a wide array of capacities for moral and civic engagement.                                                                                           

(Colby, Ehrlich, Beaumont, & Stephens, 2003, p. xii) 

Cheryl Clark 

C. Victoria Faircloth 

Rebecca Lasher 

Michael K. McDonald 

Western Carolina University, NC, USA 

Abstract 

This article features the work of an interdisciplinary faculty collaborative 
project that involved 35 university students who participated in a week 
long spring break service learning trip to the island of Jamaica.  Details 
regarding the planning process are highlighted.  A section is included on 
the experiences of students, student outcomes, and faculty assessment of 
how outcomes were met. Finally, a section on lessons learned for 
university faculty who are interested in developing similar experiential 
learning experiences for students is provided for future planning efforts. 

Introduction 

Authors have supported the benefits for university students involved in international 
service-learning projects (Button, Green, Tengnah, Johansson, & Baker, 2005; Urraca, 
Ledoux, & Harris, 2009).  By engaging in international immersion projects, 
consciousness of students with regard to cultural diversity is greatly increased, as well 
as promotion of personal growth (Caffrey, Neander, Markle, & Stewart, 2005).  Other 
meaningful benefits of service learning include enhancing the student’s experience 
while attending a university and gaining insight for selection of the right vocation. 
Furthermore, service learning and civic engagement activities include the development 
of attitudes and skills related to self and societal reflection, transformational learning, 
confidence and leadership (Bamber & Hankin, 2011).  Establishing a meaningful 
international service learning experience in higher education is based on effective 
faculty collaboration in planning intentional, focused, and transformative learning 
experiences (McKinnon & Fealy, 2011). 

An interdisciplinary/intercollege team of faculty from Western Carolina University (WCU) 
embarked on a journey of engaged teaching and learning for the 2011-2012 academic 



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year. Specifically, the faculty group chose to engage students in an experiential learning 
trip to the island of Jamaica over spring break.  WCU has a long standing relationship 
with the people of Jamaica.  Over the last 40 years, thousands of teachers with a 
teaching diploma from a British system of education have completed a four-year 
baccalaureate degree through Western’s program on the island.  With many alumni on 
the island, and the campus-wide emphasis on issues related to poverty, our project took 
shape early in the academic year.   Our faculty group had never worked together 
before, but we were able to quickly create a strong team because we shared a common 
set of values about the role of experiential learning for college students, as well as a 
common belief in the transformative power of living in a developing country for a week.  

This article provides a review of the trip, beginning with the planning process. Then, we 
discuss the experience itself: what students did and learned while living and working in 
a developing country for one week. The third section discusses student learning 
outcomes and our assessment of learning experiences. The fourth section provides a 
set of lessons learned from the perspective of the faculty supervisors. Our hope is that 
the article will provide both an inspiration for faculty considering similar international 
service-learning opportunities, as well as some helpful advice for the planning and 
implementation of such experiences. 

The Planning Process 

WCU has very specific guidelines for endorsement or sponsorship of travel experiences 
for college students. Each student who was approved to participate had to register for a 
course designated as a travel course, as well as complete an approval process through 
the campus community ethics committee. Since all students were not enrolled in the 
same course, we scheduled orientation sessions, one per month. Sessions included 
speakers who had taught in WCU’s Jamaica teacher education program or had lived in 
Jamaica.  Students were grouped by major and required to create a presentation for the 
entire group on various topics related to Jamaica’s culture, political structure, health 
issues, economic challenges, etc.  Also included in one session was the topic of being a 
guest in another country and the importance of respecting their values, beliefs, and 
traditions.   

The preparation of the budget for the trip was a critical step in the planning process.   
For this trip, we had a total of 35 students, which enabled the university to fund six 
faculty members to supervise and assist with various service and civic engagement 
activities in Jamaica.  The most intensive part of the planning process was maintaining 
regular contact with agencies and school personnel on the island.  Ultimately, this 
became one of the primary learning experiences for all of us. Life in developing 
countries does not operate at the speed to which Americans are accustomed.   We had 
to maintain our perspective that living and working in a developing country for a week 
would be a transformative experience for our students, regardless of the unexpected 
changes to our pre-departure itinerary. 

 



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The Experience:  Kingston Group 

Visiting with students and teachers in Jamaican schools allowed our students to better 
understand the challenges of providing an education in poverty stricken places, 
including a lack of teaching materials and places to store them, as well as overcrowded 
classrooms. We wanted the students to grapple with the problem of low morale in 
schools, the problem of under-qualified teachers, the lack of appropriate services for 
children with disabilities, and the stigma in society of being a child or having a child with 
special needs.  

Students also grappled firsthand with issues of poverty they had discussed in other 
classes and on campus through the poverty project. Through this trip, students were 
able to actually experience these “textbook” concepts at a realistic and often heart 
wrenching level. The young adults who participated in this trip now clearly understand 
that poverty means powerlessness and the lack of ability to control one’s destiny.  
Students experienced the true helplessness that many Jamaicans feel in their own 
country.   

In addition, students experienced community development through their exposure to 
Non- Government Organizations (NGOs) and church supported social programs in the 
country. The lack of income creation opportunities for citizens in the country further 
impacted students. This experience was transformational for some of our students and 
has led a few of them to research possible internship opportunities in Jamaica or other 
developing nations.  Finally, the opportunity to personally and meaningfully interact with 
members of the Jamaican society allowed students a glimpse of the oppression and 
real world challenges faced by their fellow global citizens.  We believe students now 
have a lifelong reference point that transcends any theoretical or academic experience 
offered in our traditional classroom curriculum.  

The Experience:  St. Elizabeth Group 

Students who went to St. Elizabeth shared a common nursing major, and as a result, 
their learning outcomes focused more on their future career goals. Notwithstanding this 
fact, these students also learned much of what we have already discussed regarding 
the plight of developing countries. 

Fulfilling many components of the nursing degree’s focus on community health, the trip 
allowed students to see the differences between nursing care in the US and in Jamaica, 
the differences between medical and drug supplies in the US and Jamaica, and to 
compare and contrast the different types of facilities where patients receive care or are 
institutionalized.  These lessons were made more concrete to students as they helped 
deliver critical medical supplies to homebound patients.   

Another important lesson for our nursing students involved appropriate cultural care.  
The trip helped students recognize and respect cultural difference and see how 
important it is to provide care appropriate to and with respect for those differences. 



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While providing health education at four rural clinics in St. Elizabeth, students 
experienced many of those cultural differences firsthand.  

While performing eye exams for preschoolers, the students were also impacted by the 
hopelessness experienced by families lacking adequate finances.  Many Jamaican 
parents struggle to buy food and pay bills; thus, buying glasses for children with vision 
issues is often impossible.   The emotional frustrations of living in poverty, experienced 
by many Jamaicans, were also experienced by the students.   

For all of our students, both in Kingston and in St. Elizabeth, the trip allowed for 
personal and professional development. They developed more global awareness and 
global citizenship. Ultimately, our goal was to design a transformative experience that 
would lead to a change in behavior of our students in response to what they learned. 
Students remarked on the flight home their lives would never be the same, and that they 
would look for opportunities to return to Jamaica and to be more involved in helping 
those in need. 

Student Outcomes and Lessons Learned 

In our assessment, the trip was a success. As Table 1 indicates, our students’ 
experiences in Jamaica lined up perfectly with the learning outcomes developed by the 
WCU poverty project steering committee. Aligning our trip with this university-wide 
initiative increased the institutional buy-in and support for our endeavor.  

The poverty project outlined four core outcomes it hoped students would achieve:  

1. to develop a more comprehensive intellectual and emotional understanding of 
the global causes and consequences of poverty; 

2. to work collaboratively across disciplines in global communities with faculty, staff, 
and community partners; 

3. to contribute to potential solutions to poverty-related issues through participation 
in community service-learning events; 

4. to take action through participation in a real world poverty-focused project. 
 

The post-trip evaluation was open-ended and students reflected on the experience in 

writing, as well as in small group discussions. Their comments lined up remarkably well 

with the learning outcomes.  Students grappled with the causes and consequences of 

poverty by visiting schools, orphanages, health clinics, etc… Their reflections noted the 

complex and interconnected realities of poverty. They noted the impact of education 

systems, debt, corruption, and globalization on the process of development in Jamaica.  

Additionally, the trip was intentionally designed to be interdisciplinary. Students reflected 
on the broad array of academic interests within the group, noting how they learned from 
the perspectives of one another. By staying together in Kingston, the 17 students from 9 
different majors each brought a unique perspective to the agencies, contributing to a 
broader understanding of the issues faced by a developing country.  



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Table 1 

Student Outcomes:   Kingston and St. Elizabeth 

                                                           
1 Our thanks to Professor John Whitmire and Jennifer Cooper, co-chairs of the poverty project steering committee, as well as all 

members of the committee. The poverty project’s great success – and these outcomes – are products of their hard work. 

WCU Poverty 
Project Outcomes1 

Activities Supporting Outcome and Student Quotations 
Demonstrating Outcome Success 

Develop a more 
comprehensive intellectual 
and emotional 
(empathetic) 
understanding of the 
causes and consequences 
of poverty-related issues, 
both global and local, as 
well as what they can do 
about them, from the 
consideration perspectives 
informed by their own 
disciplines and those of 
others via traditional 
classroom teaching and 
learning, participation in 
student clubs and 
organizations with poverty-
focused activities, and 
service with community 
partners. 

 
Activities in Kingston 

 Visiting schools, orphanage, 
home for unwed mothers, 
public health clinic 

 Speaking with staff and clients 
of each site 

 Living in and traveling around 
Jamaica for a week 

 
Activities in St. Elizabeth 

 Performing eye exams and teaching 
daily hygiene at schools 

 Visiting schools 

 Observing, participating, and 
teaching in health clinics    

 Developing therapeutic 
relationships with staff at each site 

 
"It is difficult to get a proper education especially because the country's 
focus is generally not in that direction due to other economic factors. 
Education is the key to success and without that key, the door cannot be 
unlocked and the country will have a much more difficult time prospering." 
- T.D. 
 
"I also think of extreme debt that can be accrued by developing countries 
due to IMF and World Bank loans as well as a severe lack of infrastructure 
such as decent roads, hospitals, and schools." - M.C. 
 
"Corruption within the government is a road block for many developing 
countries. In Jamaica we saw corruption when we toured [one of the 
poorer neighborhoods]. While in the tour we were informed that the roads 
in this neighborhood were well kept in order to ensure that the 
neighborhood voted for a particular party." - M.P. 
 
"Much as many other semi-periphery countries, Jamaica has a small 
portion of its people who are wealthy and the vast majority living in 
poverty" - E.J. 

Work collaboratively 
across disciplines and in 
local and global 
communities with faculty, 
staff, and community 
partners (including through 
advocacy) with individuals 
from a variety of 
philosophical, religious, 
socio-economic, and other 
backgrounds; some may 
choose to integrate 
projects they engage in, 
into their electronic 
briefcases for future 
presentation. 

 
Activities in Kingston 

 The very nature of this trip is 
interdisciplinary, with faculty from 
four disciplines and students from 
nine majors. 

 At each location, students learned 
from one another, each sharing 
some specific knowledge and 
perspective from their own major 
and course of study. 

 

 
Activities in St. Elizabeth 

 Working collaboratively with the 
nurses and various health care 
professionals in the clinics and 
teachers in the schools. 

 Attending a church service and 
speaking to people in the area 
regarding their religious beliefs.  



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WCU Poverty Project 
Outcomes 

Activities Supporting Outcome and Student Quotations 
Demonstrating Outcome Success 

Contribute to potential 
solutions to poverty-related 
issues in theoretical and 
practical terms through 
participation in scholarly 
and creative activities (via 
discipline and course-
specific approaches, as 
well as focused 
undergraduate and 
graduate research), 
service-learning, and 
student organization 
events. 

 
Activities in Kingston 

 With each experience in 
Jamaica, students 
constructed individually 
theoretical frameworks 
around the issues of poverty 
they faced, which we hope 
ultimately leads to 
construction of potential 
solutions. 

 
Activities in St. Elizabeth 

 As part of senior service 
learning project focused on 
HIV/AIDS education, students 
developed and prepared 
practical ways of presenting the 
information, accounting for the 
impact of poverty on the topic. 

 Students from the student 
organization, Nurses Christian 
Fellowship, prepared stories 
and craft activities for local 
schools. 

 
"You really have to employ the 'teach a man to fish' concept with these 
countries. Too often, our aid programs have turned these countries into 
being severely dependent on foreign benefactors." - E.J. 
 
"Education is the number one way to help someone, whether it be how to 
farm using the resources that they already have or on how to make clothes 
so that they would have something to sell. If you educate someone, you 
can provide them with a lifetime of knowledge." - T.C. 
 
"Health care teams can make a huge difference. They can educate 
Jamaican health care workers and help provide resources." - B.C. 

 

Take action through 
participation in real-world, 
poverty-focused projects 
and initiatives – including 
advocacy and civic 
engagement projects – with 
relevance to the content 
and skills of their own 
majors and vocational 
goals, as well as the lives of 
informed and responsible 
citizen content, meet 
community needs, develop 
career-related skills, and 
become responsible 
citizens. We collaborate 
with faculty, staff, students, 
and community partners to 
promote engagement, 
foster civic responsibility, 
and encourage academic 
excellence. 

 
Activities in Kingston 

 Students spent one day with the 
Peace Corps office in Kingston, 
learning about some concrete 
ways they could participate in 
poverty-reduction initiatives. 

 Throughout, students were 
completing this outcome: the 
entire trip was a participation in 
the real world of poverty 
projects. 

 
Activities in St. Elizabeth 
Students, whether in clinics, nursing 
home, schools, private homes, or 
hostel, participated in projects that 
revolved around poverty issues. 

 
"Though I have travelled all over the world, Jamaica was my favorite 
experience. This has everything to do with the participants and who we 
encountered. Jamaica, despite the economic hardships, is a warm and 
inviting country." - E.J. 
 
"This educational experience was top notch! Experiences such as this for 
our young college students being exposed to other cultures and other 
world views." - C.F. (Doctoral student in educational leadership, who was 
one of our graduate student participants) 
 



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Solutions to poverty are hard to come by, but our students demonstrated a 
sophisticated appreciation of Jamaica’s challenges and needs. The service-learning 
design of our trip allowed students to be on the ground and think about problem solving 
rather than sit back in an ivory tower classroom thinking abstractly about solutions. In 
their reflections they noted the importance of education and sustainable development 
project that – as one student noted – “teach a man to fish.” 

Finally, students took action. Throughout the trip students participated in real-world 
projects, collaborating with NGOs and professionals on the ground to develop a 
stronger sense of global citizenship and foster a deeper sense of civic responsibility. 

Students learned a great deal in Jamaica, but we identified several areas where student 
learning could be improved. Most importantly, we did not reserve enough time for 
structured reflection during the trip. The realities and logistics of getting students to and 
from the NGOs and agencies were more time-consuming that we had anticipated. Our 
intention was to have time each evening for reflection, but that time slipped away. In the 
future, we will reserve an hour or two in the morning to reflect on the previous day’s 
activity. This will give students time to process their experiences from the previous day 
without forgetting the salient details.  

Additionally, we did not require a final paper or project from our students, in large part 
because they were taking a 1-credit travel course. Ideally, a trip of this magnitude would 
correspond with a 3-credit course and culminate in a research paper and presentation. 
Having a journal as the final product was fruitful, but a research paper would add 
significant academic content and rigor to the experience. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, the trip resulted in extraordinary student learning. We are convinced of 
the importance and value of this kind of international service-learning trip.  This paper 
shows how this type of trip aids in student development, both personally and 
professionally, and the resulting shift of world view such experiences offer. We 
encourage other faculty to work collaboratively, across disciplines, to design similar 
opportunities for experiential learning for their students.  

References 

Bamber, P., & Hankin, L. (2011). Transformative learning through service learning:                          
No passport required. Education and Training, 53, 190-206. 

Button, L., Green, B., Tengnah, C., Johansson, I., & Baker, C. (2005). The impact of 
intercultural placements on nurses’ personal and professional lives: Literature 
review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 50, 315-24. 

Caffrey, R., Neander, W., Markle, D., & Stewart, B. (2005). Improving the cultural 
competence of nursing students: Results of integrating cultural content in the 
curriculum and an international immersion experience. Journal of Nursing 
Education, 44, 234-240. 



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Colby, A., Ehrlich, T., Beaumont, E., & Stephens, J. (2003). Educating citizens. San 
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. 

McKinnon, T., & Fealy, G. (2011). Core principles for developing global service learning 
programs for nursing. Nursing Education Perspectives, 32, 95-100. 

Urraca, B., Ledoux, M., & Harris, J. (2009). Beyond the comfort zone: Lessons of 
intercultural service. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, 
Issues, and Ideas, 82, 281-289. 

 

About the Authors 
 
Cheryl Clark received her ADN from the University of Indianapolis in 1968, her BSN 
from the University of Evansville in 1975, and her MSN from California State University 
in LA in 1981. She has worked in medical/surgical units, cardiac stepdown units, and 
long term care. For the past 13 years, she has been a nurse educator at WCU, working 
primarily in medical-surgical and mental health classes. She is certified in Faith 
Community Nursing. Her interests include spiritual care of patients and international 
nursing. She can be reached at cclark@email.wcu.edu.  
 
C. Victoria Faircloth is an associate Professor in the School of Teaching and Learning, 
College of Education, at Western Carolina University. She received her doctorate in 
Education from the University of Georgia in 1990. Her current interest in international 
service learning was started in 1997, when she became part of the university's teacher 
education program in Jamaica. She can be reached at victoria@email.wcu.edu.  
 

Rebecca Lasher After receiving her graduate degree from the University of Tennessee 
in 1985, Rebecca Lasher worked in clinical social work for 23 years specializing in 
counseling with children and adolescents.  Her years of experience in the field led her to 
the current position of Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at Western 
Carolina University in 2008.   As a former school social worker, her interests include 
poverty and how it impacts children in the educational environment.   She was a 
member of the WCU Poverty Project committee during the 2011-12 academic year.  Her 
service at Western Carolina also includes involvement on the Faculty Senate as the 
elected secretary and facilitating Intergroup Dialogues with students.   She can be 
reached at rlasher@email.wcu.edu.  

Michael K. McDonald is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at WCU and 
a doctoral candidate in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of 
Maryland. His research and teaching focus on international and economic development, 
international political economy, and international public health. For 2011-2012, he was a 
co-investigator on the WCU Poverty Project. Michael also researches the scholarship of 
teaching and learning, having published articles on experiential learning and civic 
engagement. He can be reached at mkmcdonald@email.wcu.edu.  

mailto:cclark@email.wcu.edu
mailto:victoria@email.wcu.edu
mailto:rlasher@email.wcu.edu
mailto:mkmcdonald@email.wcu.edu

