If it’s summer, Gulliver Prep senior Isabela Herrera will be in Maasi Mara, between Kenya and Tanzania, to teach how to read and write English to members of a nomadic tribe.
“We did two trips, in 2016 and 2017,” she says. “There will be one this year.”
The independent service project is one of the reasons Herrera is the Gulliver Silver Knight nominee in the area of Drama.
The trips to Africa last for two to three weeks. Funding comes through a Puerto Rican based foundation which holds fundraisers at tennis and golf events.
Travel to that region in 2014 sent Herrera on the path to help the Maasi children. While there, the family noticed that members of the Maasi tribe were in high service positions, but at the same time, those who didn’t know English had fewer opportunities.
“They struggle with languages and basic learning skills. When we went to the schools, we found most of the books were dating back to 1940s or 50s,” she says. “They have a family-based learning system.”
She tries to work with as many children as possible, but the situation is complicated by the fact that the tribe is nomadic. There could be as many as 3,000 kids and so far, they’ve worked with 400. In 2018 the plan is to reach another 300 students.
“Our goal is to reach every area to help them,” she says. “The reason we spent two to three weeks there is to get the adults who know how to read and write to learn these skills to help their children. We also try to get more outsourcing from the local college.”
They have also implemented solar based technology for the students to use. In addition, they have donated school materials such as pens and pencils and notebooks.
Herrera hopes to continue the project herself even when she goes to New York University next year. However, she does have several people in the foundation who are interested in taking over if she can’t.
At Gulliver, Herrera is the co-president of the Thespian Society. She’s also a Student Council ambassador. She is vice president of the Biomedical Club and a member of the French Honor Society, the National Honor Society and the National English Honor Society.
Through the English Honor Society, she participates at the Barnyard in Coconut Gove, helping inner city kids with their homework.
She mainly behind the scenes in the drama program, as the stage manager.
“I organize every event, every show,” she says. “Every event that we do.”
She’s been working on an entry to The Conrad Spirit of Innovation Challenge, which is also sponsored by NASA. The entry is an app that alleviates the stress of waiting times at a hospital.
“Our goal is to work like the Uber app,” she says.
The app would give someone an idea of how long the wait time is at each hospital and would allow for pre-arrival check-in.
“We hope to finish the app this year,” she says. “We’re on the semi-final stage of the challenge. We’re waiting back to hear if we go to finals.”
Her community service also includes working the Sandals Foundation.
“In 2015 I did a service trip to Jamaica to help a school there,” she says. “We repainted their walls, gave them a new library with books, and gave the students notebooks and backpacks.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
