By Lyn Berry
UNION-TRIBUNE
November 1, 2008
VISTA – David Hanlon's character education classes are full of enthusiastic students. But one of them, Vista High senior Natalie Gibney, has taken her learning a step beyond the norm.
Natalie, 17, not only organized one of the largest service projects on campus last year but also used the tools and resources she gained to research a program that took her to Cambodia for a month last summer.
During her first year in Hanlon's class, Natalie and another student, Fletche Damon, organized the Shoes for Africa campaign. Together, the students researched children's need for shoes in Nairobi and made a plan to help fill that need.
“We made fliers and created a Web site to inform people about our project,” Natalie said. “We organized a drive on campus for gently used shoes. A friend of my father donated a large crate for shipping, and Mr. Hanlon knew of someone in Nairobi in a sister program.
“With all of those efforts, we were able to send 850 pairs of shoes to children who needed them.”
Natalie, who hopes to major in international studies in college, didn't stop with her Africa project. Next, she researched a way to combine her desire for travel with her passion for helping others. She ended up spending July in Cambodia with a program sponsored by The Putney School in Vermont.
“I was able to join a group of some students who were going to teach English at a school in the slums of Cambodia,” she said. “Because I was there for a month, I also traveled all around the country.”
Humbled by her experience, Natalie still shakes her head in awe as she recalls the living conditions of children in one of the world's poorest countries.
“I went to a dump where kids live in houses of cardboard on top of piles of trash,” she said. “I was in culture shock. When I came back to our dorms, I had a hard time with people who were so upset over the fact that they had cold showers.”
Natalie has kept in touch with students from the summer program, and they are finding ways to help the children they met in a Cambodian orphanage.
“We are contacting stores here to try to find a way to sell karmas, which are traditional scarves worn by Cambodians,” she said. “We can buy them for about $2 and sell them for, say, $10. We will send all the money we make to the orphanage.”
Natalie also is working with A New Day, an organization that finds ways to provide education for the children who live at the dump.
Work like this, she said, has inspired her to pursue a career with social advocacy organizations.
UNION-TRIBUNE
November 1, 2008
VISTA – David Hanlon's character education classes are full of enthusiastic students. But one of them, Vista High senior Natalie Gibney, has taken her learning a step beyond the norm.
Natalie, 17, not only organized one of the largest service projects on campus last year but also used the tools and resources she gained to research a program that took her to Cambodia for a month last summer.
During her first year in Hanlon's class, Natalie and another student, Fletche Damon, organized the Shoes for Africa campaign. Together, the students researched children's need for shoes in Nairobi and made a plan to help fill that need.
“We made fliers and created a Web site to inform people about our project,” Natalie said. “We organized a drive on campus for gently used shoes. A friend of my father donated a large crate for shipping, and Mr. Hanlon knew of someone in Nairobi in a sister program.
“With all of those efforts, we were able to send 850 pairs of shoes to children who needed them.”
Natalie, who hopes to major in international studies in college, didn't stop with her Africa project. Next, she researched a way to combine her desire for travel with her passion for helping others. She ended up spending July in Cambodia with a program sponsored by The Putney School in Vermont.
“I was able to join a group of some students who were going to teach English at a school in the slums of Cambodia,” she said. “Because I was there for a month, I also traveled all around the country.”
Humbled by her experience, Natalie still shakes her head in awe as she recalls the living conditions of children in one of the world's poorest countries.
“I went to a dump where kids live in houses of cardboard on top of piles of trash,” she said. “I was in culture shock. When I came back to our dorms, I had a hard time with people who were so upset over the fact that they had cold showers.”
Natalie has kept in touch with students from the summer program, and they are finding ways to help the children they met in a Cambodian orphanage.
“We are contacting stores here to try to find a way to sell karmas, which are traditional scarves worn by Cambodians,” she said. “We can buy them for about $2 and sell them for, say, $10. We will send all the money we make to the orphanage.”
Natalie also is working with A New Day, an organization that finds ways to provide education for the children who live at the dump.
Work like this, she said, has inspired her to pursue a career with social advocacy organizations.
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