As an intern with La Esperanza in Granada, Nicaragua I worked to execute the Everyday Action project. The organization is based around an international group of volunteers with the goal of improving education in local schools. Currently, La Esperanza serves over 2,000 children annually in Nicaragua’s most poverty stricken areas. The volunteers work in the schools daily as teaching assistants, providing one on one attention and English lessons. Recently, La Esperanza opened a learning center to provide the kids with afterschool academic enrichment. The Everyday Action project was launched in the learning center to give the children access to fundamental concepts in science, a subject rarely taught in their classrooms

During my internship I implemented a curriculum developed in conjunction with Tal Danino, my research mentor and head of the Biological Synthetic Systems Laboratory at Columbia Univeristy. I led activities including glogerm, microscope lessons, and a grow your own bacteria” activity in which each child will learn to grow bacteria found on their hands in petri dishes filled with dyed agar. The focus then shifted towards the creation of the large- scale community art piece. All the recyclable materials for the sculpture were collected from the children’s communities and the final piece was displayed permanently in the learning center

I am an undergraduate studying Cellular and Molecular Biology at Barnard College. In many ways, the Everyday Action project is a culmination of my current studies. In developing the curriculum for the initiative, I thought about the fundamental concepts I was learning in my Biology classes at Barnard and how they could be translated into fun activities for kids. In particular, my work in laboratory courses helped me realize the importance of exposing kids to microscopes and allowed me to effectively teach kids using these tools. In many ways, the curriculum I implemented at the learning center builds directly off of the work being done by the Danino Laboratory at Columbia University. The lab grows bacteria for many uses, but with the kids in the learning center I created an activity where they grew bacteria from their surroundings on petri dishes filled with dyed agar

When planning the project I wasn’t entirely sure what science background the children or the members of the organization would have. I was surprised to learn that science is generally not taught as a subject at most of the schools and as a result the children and many members of the organization were initially skeptical of the project and its value. This made the planning process challenging. However, as soon as I began to implement the curriculum with the kids, it was clear that these activities were novel and engaging for them and the skepticism quickly subsided. Another challenge was collecting materials for the sculpture. We wanted all the children participating in the project to be part of the collection process, but this proved to be unrealistic. Some children were excited about collecting materials and brought in some everyday, while others were less engaged in this part of the project

Getting the opportunity to return to Nicaragua and work with La Esperanza for a second time has been invaluable. Implementing the curriculum for the first time in Nicaragua was truly a case of trial and error, I was constantly learning on the job that often what I thought would work needed to be adapted to the circumstances of the location and children participating. My expectations and goals needed to be altered so that I was working effectively within the organization rather than trying to force my own vision forward. This learning experience will be fundamental as I continue to expand the Everyday Action project by working with other nonprofit organizations.