Jessica Bai ’16: The “Ben Read Scholar” Award is annually awarded to a junior who is an outstanding scholar in history courses, and, upon sending a project proposal, the student can receive a grant to pursue this endeavor nationally or internationally. Chuck Bryant, a critical member of the Ben Read scholarship selection process and History Department Chair says, “The program, both the scholarship and the lecture series, exemplifies the very best of Episcopal’s commitment to service, whether through our Community Outreach program, within the school, or in life beyond Episcopal.”
Alexa D’Ambrosio ‘17, as the 2016-2017 award recipient, illustrates this purpose of actively seeking to address the humanitarian issues of today through service. In her project proposal she describes her plans to travel to Honduras and aid orphaned children at Amigos de Jesus by implementing an art history curriculum.
She explains, “I wanted to do this for two main reasons: one, a lot of the orphans don’t have a sense of belonging because they are orphans and without parents, so it would give them pride in their cultural roots. Also, the curriculum would be combined with art projects, so it would give them a vehicle to express themselves.”
Amigos de Jesus is a Honduran orphanage located at Tegucigalpa, dubbed the murder capital of the world and where many of the orphans come from. “A lot of times the people from the orphanage go to Tegucigalpa because there’s a really big trash pile. A lot of the kids live there with their siblings and live off of this garbage,” D’Ambrosio states. “It’s a really tough life. Even when the orphans go to the orphanage, many of them are still hesitant because they’ve been scared to trust people because they’ve been let down in the past.”
Photo Courtesy of Alexa D’Ambrosio ’17
D’Ambrosio also explained her experience with the kids, saying, ” Each year five or six Honduran orphans come from Amigos de Jesus to the United States. “I’ve gotten to know a lot of them, and they’re all so happy and optimistic and so appreciative,” D’Ambrosio recalls, “One of the kids named Alejandro really likes music, so we got him a nineteen dollar boom box from CVS, but he was so appreciative and he’d never thought that he’d have one of those.”
Additionally, Holly Johnston, faculty advisor for the club, says, ” It’s not the more traditional way of living in an orphanage where they feel like they’re living separately, but instead they are living in one big room and one big house [with] common meals [and] shared meals and that to me is what makes this particular orphanage so powerful.”
In addition to implementing a library, there for the children, D’Ambrosio also has been working on a children’s book about and for the orphanage.
During her service project in Honduras, D’Ambrosio plans to create an art history curriculum that is centered around Honduran culture for the benefit of the orphans at Amigos de Jesus.
She explains, “The reason why I want to explore Honduran art history is to give them a sense of their past, where their ancestors came from, and learn about their past through art.”
As a way to involve the EA community, D’Ambrosio says, “I started a club called Friends Across Borders at the end of last year…with Mrs. Johnston as my faculty advisor.” The goal was to bring EA students together with children from the orphanage in Honduras.
Through multiple lunch meetings, the kids joined EA students, attempting to learn about each other’s cultures.
During their EA visit the Honduran orphans even visited Spanish classrooms like those of Dr. Cochrane and Sra. Yaros.
In addition, Friends Across Borders held a meeting in which they made bookmarks based on an ancient Mayan weaving technique that D’Ambrosio plans to teach the orphans during her service trip.
Maddie O’Reilly ‘17, a member of the Friends Across Borders club, remembers the day that the Honduran kids visited her Spanish class. She says, “In my Spanish class, the kids were so joyful even though they were living lives without parents. I think that experience in my Spanish class really reminded all of us how fortunate we are to go to EA and have parents to support us.”
Ben Read Scholars in both the past and present have continued to embody the spirit of Ben Read by encouraging the Episcopal community to continue living its stripe of Generosity.
Bryant explains his hopes for the future of this award. He says, “I hope that the recipients are able to leverage their experience(s) as the Ben Read scholars as productively as many of our past winners have, and come back and share their passion for service with the EA community.”
D’Ambrosio encourages others in similar ways. “I would say find something you’re passionate about and people you care for, and bring those interests together,” she says.
The Ben Read Scholar often, through his or her service trip, inspires others to absorb the lessons learned from their service project. “You often receive more back than what you give,” concludes D’Ambrosio, “The orphans’ appreciation is so great and has taught me so much about being appreciative and about family. Their smiles are so warm.”