Back in 2018, I heard about the Lilly Teacher Renewal program through an email blast. The purpose and process felt a bit nebulous, but I was intrigued — the possibilities sounded endless! After some research, I was hooked on applying for the grant. I had learned that one of the possibilities could be to plan an experience or opportunity that would help me feel renewed energy and purpose in my career. After 6 years of teaching I felt the need for that quite strongly. To be honest, I do not remember the exact moment or setting where the decision was made to apply for this grant. However, after much talk (and a bit of procrastination!) my colleague and I decided to sit down and write the grant. We knew right away that we wanted to visit Mexico.

When writing the grant proposal our main purpose of the trip was to travel to Mexico to increase our cultural awareness and knowledge of the native country of the majority of our students and their families. We wanted to do this by crossing la frontera in Texas, participating in a home stay, and planning many different opportunities to learn about the history, culture, and traditions of Mexico. I was blessed to go through the process (It’s a long one!) of writing the grant with one of my colleagues who is a huge part of my support system at work and has become a friend of mine. Although we aren’t able to travel together this summer, I know our separate experiences will still help us grow as individuals and educators. With that being said — Huge shoutout to BMorris! If you’re reading this I hope you know that without you I am not sure I would have made it through the last five years with any sense of sanity. Xo

Once I knew that I would need a travel partner, I hoped that my coworker and friend, Morgen, would join me. I knew that her passion and heart for our students would peak her interest in this trip and thank goodness I was right! After some time we also convinced my best friend, Yami, to come along!

When we decided to start the planning for this trip, we were introduced to The Sidewalk School by one of our wonderful coworkers, Adriana. The Sidewalk School provides schooling to people facing displacement in a refuge camp at the border of Mexico and the United States. As soon as we did more research about the school, we knew right away that we wanted to include visiting this school in our itinerary. However, due to relocation of the school this spring and the border being closed to nonessential travel, we felt that it was best to fundraise to support the school rather than visit as we had hoped. Through the support of Christel House and our amazing school community we donated almost $700 to this organization. It is our hope to continue to find ways to donate again in the future!

I could talk more about our plans, but I will leave that to Morgen in the next post because fast forward over a year of pandemic time and a TON of anticipation, we are just a little less than 48 hours from landing time in CDMX!!! Hasta la proxima vez!