An Overview of Service Learning in Puerto Rico!

Our week was full of service and project work from around 8AM to 5PM, where we then returned to the hotel with food from Wandy to fuel ourselves to explore San Juan during the night. We had originally landed in San Juan on Saturday, March 7th, greeted by the social worker Adriana and a boatload of food: breakfast options to leave in the hotel, a beautiful assortment of sandwich wraps for lunch, and dinner. Leaving a week later was bittersweet, especially when we realized that the USDA and TSA screening lines were abnormally long due to the partial government shutdown.

Constants I Am Grateful For

Before I go in depth on the diverse array of events that happened during our trip (we were busy in the best way possible), here are some notable constants that allowed us to experience so many things:

• Adriana not only planned our trips, but also personally drove us around, was patient when things ran late, optimistic as we had to pivot plans, informative about the history and context of all the work and political unrest, and above all, kind to us. She was always open to talking about the importance of our work and about her life. We learned about her dog, her experience losing her house from Hurricane Maria, her current Master’s schooling, the other programs Caras has, and more. She was truly the backbone running this whole trip. She was constantly the first to start conversations with us and translated the entire trip between others, herself, and used Google Translate when necessary. From her, I learned the importance of taking the first step to connect with others.
• Wandy was the most amazing cook at the community center who provided home-cooked lunch and dinner for us almost every day. She fed us a variety of traditional foods, such as tostones, rice, beans, pork chops, chicken, and beyond. On Friday, she specially prepared a variety of seafood with salad and mandu: octopus, kani, and shrimp.
• I wonder in retrospect if she prepared fish on Friday as she was Catholic/practicing Lent, as Michael mentioned that many workers at Caras identified as Christian, and the predominant religion in Puerto Rico is Roman Catholicism. Nevertheless, she shared a vital part of Puerto Rico’s culture with her care and gave us our fuel to come into work every day.
• Another constant throughout the trip was our stay at Hotel Iberia, located ten minutes from the airport and Old San Juan. Our location was convenient: we had daily visits to the SuperMax market, the beach, and the opportunity to explore the nightlife there. Aside from that, the owner was very excited to talk and help us, and we tried practicing our Spanish with him. There are many stray cats and chickens roaming around the hotel. On the top-floor terrace, the owner had a 17-year-old cat who would eagerly await those dining on top to drop her food, as well as a few birds.

Lessons and Significance from Memories of Work, Service, and Beyond

While I originally wanted to give a day-by-day play-by-play of our work and other endeavors, I believe it makes more sense to divide my experience into three main themes of work on our project, service, and other endeavors:

Work on Our Project:

• We met with the CEO, Michael, on Monday and Wednesday. Monday was mostly about asking about himself and clarifying the scope of work. We soon realized that we needed to pivot the original target audience of our social media plan. Instead of targeting Gen Z, he was more interested in potentially higher donations from 30-60 year olds. These donations should also be unrestricted, meaning that they can provide for different programs and operations as needed. By Wednesday, we had put together a presentation in order to show him our current research and emphasize the new next steps, modifying what we believed was most important for the Scope of Work. For example, we now believe an additional deliverable on potential target microinfluencer partnerships may be beneficial for this project. Not only did this experience teach us how to pivot on the fly, but it also helped us to recognize that our current research on Gen Z could still be utilized for longer-term plans as we reframed our Scope of Work.
• Following the meeting with Michael on Wednesday, we had an impromptu meeting with Anthony and Arianna, who manage their social media from different countries. A meeting with Beatrice, who specializes in data collection, was later scheduled, and she explained the CRM Salesforce they are in the process of implementing. Asking for a meeting with these three was very important to get a feel of the work capacity and current infrastructure of Caras as it related to our project. From this experience, I learned the importance of asking: for meetings, during the meetings, and for staying in touch with them in the future.
• An interesting process was learning how Anthony and Arianna differed in opinion in relation to Michael about how effective or feasible implementing new social media platforms and plans would be in the future. This is similar to a differing in opinion between the most efficient platform to use between Adriana and Michael, which we had seen earlier in the week. I realized that while the organization is united as one under Caras (with the face of the organization being Michael), they all held differing perspectives on the organization, especially regarding their unique positions, where they could make smaller decisions in the moment in comparison to large calls on the organization’s future.

These different worldviews reminded me of how Adriana related to the current political state of Puerto Rico. She had emphasized that, though the current pushes for statehood versus the independence of Puerto Rico were very split, Caras and Puerto Rico were all united as one when it comes to helping each other and holding pride in being a part of their community, which I find beautiful.

Service Work:

Something unique to Caras is that they provide diligently to all three sectors of ecology, community, and education.

• For ecology, we weeded in Caras’ headquarters’ nursery, tagged trees on one of their nature reserves, and germinated seeds at La Rosalina public charter school. During our time with the ecology team, we talked about how expensive college was in the mainland US, as well as how one of them had to live in the mainland US after Hurricane Maria. This brought to my attention how privileged I was to attend university and have a roof over my head, which is something I take for granted daily.
• For education, I visited La Rosalina Public Charter School. We asked questions for students’ presentations, classroom exercises, and gathered soil for their planting activities. My favorite piece of information I learned from students was about the Cloudless Sulphur caterpillars, whose color varies based on what part of the flower they eat.
• For the community, we danced and played bingo with elders as well as cleaned a home. If I could describe the elders in one word, it would be “fun”. They were, hands down, the most lively group I have been around. They encouraged us to dance while they chanted songs upon us arriving and made sure I knew what numbers they called out during Bingo. Cleaning the house was very impactful for me. We were informed briefly before that the man’s house had not had running water or electricity, and that he suffered from depression and schizophrenia, but was not able to get the support that was needed. We were slightly lacking in cleaning materials upon arriving, and had to change our plan of action. Through this experience, I learned the importance of voicing concerns and being able to communicate what may be needed from others in the moment.

​By taking part in all three sectors, it became clear how important our Scope of Work was to diversify their portfolio. My fundamental takeaway is that Caras is an extremely well-organized and passionate organization. Due to reasons outside of their control, such as shifting government regulation and a detrimental need from the communities in all areas, it is important that they are able to rely on a larger independent revenue stream so that they can take the extra mile to provide help, materials, and programs to communities of Catano and Guaynabo and their daily operations.

Non-Work with Adriana and Other Independent Endeavors:

• We had our “fun days” planned with Adriana. On Sunday, arrived in Old San Juan, where they played music for the whole day, locals and tourists dancing together. On Friday, we visited El Yunque, ate mofongo, and played volleyball at La Carolina beach. While I loved all the activities planned during these days, I realized how much fun the days of our work were because I was constantly connecting with people.
• On our own, we once again visited Old San Juan, where we entered two jazz clubs featuring talented pianists, one singing a multitude of Latin songs, and later, a Frank Sinatra classic. We also experienced the popular tourist nightlife of La Placita, and I was surprised to find how open locals were to dancing with everybody, though it was filled with tourists. On Thursday, our bomba instructor taught us four methods of dancing, emphasizing the importance of this predominantly Afro-Puerto Rican improvised dance that served as resistance and expression for enslaved sugar plantation workers. And, of course, on the morning right before the flight at 2:30, we decided to kayak! Our guide was very friendly and talked to us throughout the entire trip. From visits to Old San Juan, La Placita, Bomba Class, and kayaking, our main takeaway from outside of work endeavors was the openness of the locals of Puerto Rico, continuing to spread their culture of dance, music, and conversation throughout hardships.

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A Discussion on Expectations and How Class Readings Guided Me

I had expected from class discussions and preparing our cultural presentation that our itinerary would be more flexible. This held to be true. Based on a changing landscape, including the limited availability of Michael and sudden downpours of rain, Adriana quickly created different plans for each day. I believe this allowed us to become uncomfortable with uncertainty and ultimately be more bold in voicing a request for an impromptu meeting or schedule change, and allowed for a relaxed work environment. The guiding class reading through this uncertainty was “Points of Discomfort: Reflections on Power and Partnerships in International Service-Learning” by Erin K. Sharpe and Samantha Dear. This article emphasized the significance of preparing beforehand, considering your client, and putting yourself out there in an uncomfortable situation to help you grow. A slight concern of mine in this trip (and in life) is that if events did not going according to plan, points of necessity might not be met. This was not the case at all for this trip. Not only did we get so many meetings between Michael, Anthony, Arianna, Beatrice, and work across the three pillars of their organization, but we learned so much more about Caras’ individuals than anticipated because they were so willing to go above and beyond and talk about the work they are passionate about. I had originally expected some changes from our scope of work, but didn’t anticipate as much of an extensive a reframing of the target persona to middle-aged donors. From our talks with Michael and beyond, and a new perspective on work, I am very optimistic that our group will be able to make changes to our final deliverable as Caras needs, even if things do not go as planned.

I also didn’t expect to learn so much from the children about themselves and even how important they are to the larger picture of Puerto Rico. The significance of La Rosalina existing when over 670 public schools in Puertos have shut down since 2007 is so important to the development of the community and these children’s lives. I was also surprised to see how interested they were in my cultural and ethnic background. In the article “What Should Be Learned through Service Learning?” by Michael X. Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter, they emphasize the importance of not only gaining knowledge but also becoming an engaged citizen. I wanted to be able to observe and learn about the political and social climate of Puerto Rico in relation to everyday experiences there. My experience at the school sparked a conversation with Adriana during lunch about how racism tends to be prominently present in the mainland US, while economic classism is more prominent and experienced by students in Puerto Rico. Multiple times throughout our trip, multiple locals mentioned experiencing racism regarding their accent while in the mainland US, which I found interesting. From talking with different people, it seems that students and adults experience more economic classism rather than racism in the mainland. Individuals I met in Puerto Rico seem to be very open and curious to discuss other cultures, which was refreshing. I wasn’t expecting how quickly I opened up to others after experiencing how much they wanted to get to know me. As I also observed before, the openness to dance and talk with tourists when I normally would expect hostility (tourism, especially during spring break, brings in a lot of trouble for them, which they expressed to us) was also interesting to me.

I expected the food to be great, and it turned out to be even better. I personally love plantains, and the staples of Puerto Rican cuisine kept me extremely happy. I was surprised to find how little spicy cuisine was in their food, given their proximity to Mexico and Haiti, which was an error on my part for not making this connection through our cultural food presentation. I think this was an important realization in conjunction with the article “Developing Intercultural Competence by Participating in Intensive Intercultural Service-Learning” by Nadia De Leon. In this article, Nadia talks of the risk of reinforcing stereotypes or the lack of getting to know the culture in depth throughout service learning projects. By imposing a preconception of cuisine from the proximity of other islands in the Caribbean and focusing solely on my part of the cultural presentation, I failed to properly research cuisine extensively and risked generalizations about Puerto Rico. A goal of mine in the future is to research all aspects of culture as much as possible, even if others may have the information beforehand.

Final Thoughts