New Garden Friends School Service Trip Immerses Students in the Language and Culture of Cuba

Last year Robb Jolly spent his summer in Cuba helping to repair a Quaker church damaged in 2008 by Hurricane Ike. A Spanish instructor at New Garden Friends School, he hoped to plant the seeds for a return service learning trip with his students.

Jolly’s dream came true this spring when he secured a special travel license from the U.S. government and set off for Holguín, Cuba, with a group of Middle and Upper School students and adults.

“The trip gave us a way to immerse students in the language and a culture they have studied in class, while also furthering the Quaker value of doing meaningful service,” says Jolly, who also heads New Garden Friends School’s Service Learning program for grades K-8.

The group included students Allie Corcoran, Iloria Phoenix, Tyler Rachal, Levi Ricketts, Will Warwick, Sean Yeomans and Imari Washington. While there, they continued work on a new building at La Iglesia de los Amigos, one of 14 Quaker churches on the island. The students mixed and moved cement for cinderblock walls, dug ditches for foundation footings, built a pantry, and organized building materials and tools that will be used next month when a team from First Friends Meeting in Greensboro arrives for their own work trip.