Change-Making Animal Academy

Each year La Ceiba recruits a new cohort of university students. Many arrive to some degree paralyzed by perfectionism, tentative about taking the initiative, and unwilling to throw themselves and their work into the real world out of fear of failure. Yet, for those who embrace the opportunity and internalize our way of walking, they arrive on the other-side transformed into the leaders our complex, interdependent and rapidly changing world needs.

Objectives:

  1. Join our clients in giving poverty a beat down.
  2. Transform students into Change-Making Animals

Opportunities:

  1. Learn about microfinance by doing microfinance.
  2. Learn about development by doing development.
  3. Learn to slay your demons by having to slay your demons.

Immerse Yourself:

  1. Development immersion – get a taste of development rather than just read and critique.
  2. Cultural/language immersion – if you’re a Spanish speaker (and even if you’re not), there’s translations, conducting surveys, as well as the culture of how to work in Honduras—essential in today’s global, cross-cultural world.

You Will Also Get To:

  1. Make your mark in the world…today.
  2. Connect with the movers and shakers of the microfinance community, like Muhammad Yunus (Nobel Peace Prize Winner) and more. We have.
  3. Leave with a set of skills that prepare you for a life worth living: humility, flexibility, patience, and a readiness to listen and learn with others.

Seriously, When Was the Last Time You Felt this Way as a Student:

“We create and develop our own knowledge. We are our own teacher; we rejected the traditional classroom structure and channeled this dynamic into our approach towards development. Our student-centered philosophy created our client-centered approach. All of our programs have reflected this value. It was a decision made by students, our thoughts and convictions are our own and we own them.”

– Santiago Sueiro

Thinking about enrolling?

Step 1: Review these Links

Step 2: Review the Class Details:

  • Offered every fall at the University of Mary Washington
  • Open to non-UMW Students
  • All majors welcomed: economics, math, philosophy, religion, Spanish, anthropology, biology, political science, and geography
  • Class size is usually set at 10 – 12 students.
  • No experience is necessary
  • There is hardly any structure. Every day is pretty much the same. We sit around a big table and thrash about ideas, slay our demons, and get to work.

Step 3: Contact Dr. Humphrey (shumphre@umw.edu)

 

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