Montville Students Help Bring Education To Haitians In Need

In New Jersey, as well as other states, students are blessed with the opportunity to have advancing levels of education, really, from birth. It's easy to take education for granted. But eleven Montville High students with a great appreciation for education's importance played a part in passing it forward, by traveling to Haiti to build a school under the wing of two organizations, Pathways for Exceptional Children and buildOn, an organization that builds schools in the world’s most impoverished areas.

In July, the band of eleven Montville Township High students packed their bags and took the 9-day trip to the impoverished region of Tremé in Haiti to build a school. High school senior, Claudia Trionfo was both nervous and excited in the days preceding the trip.

"My experience in Haiti is one I could never imagine forgetting," Trionfo explained in a recent Patch.com post. "The memories I made working on the school and especially, [of] the relationships I was able to develop with villagers will be everlasting."

Trionfo and the other students had prepped in advance of the trip for seven months, raising the $30,000 needed for transportation and construction materials. When they arrived in Tremé, they met with residents and discovered a world far different from their own, where there was neither electricity nor running water.

The team broke the ground using shovels and axes, made the base of the foundation by hand using bricks, and worked alongside villagers, some as young as 10 years of age. Each of the students learned about construction as they built the school from the ground up. At the end of each day, their only means of washing the grime off was a cup and a bucket.

It's the kind of experience Pathways for Exceptional Children will often take on. The organization is a special needs club that provides opportunities to students to become leaders.

“The leadership group selects projects to make a difference that are truly exceptional or that few people would have the courage or tenacity to do,” said Pathways President Melinda Jennis. “It is a group that pushes themselves outside of the comfort zone."

"Haiti will forever have a piece of my heart," Trionfo remarked. The experience is probably not one easily forgotten for her classmates as well: Bayann Amer, Tasneem Amer, Gabby Babula, Jessica Caprio, Brynn Gille, Venkat Gokaraju, Jacob Jennis, Stephanie Jennis, Amanda O'Lear, and Sam Weinstein.

Image via Montville Township High and Claudia Trionfo, used with permission.