Introduction

Hi! My name is Alison Climes and this is my blog for my summer travels to Nicaragua! I am just finishing up my freshman year at the University of Michigan and am still undecided in my major. On May 1st, I will be traveling to Managua, Nicaragua for a volunteer trip with the program ATRAVES and a group of about 15 other students.  We will be gone until the 28th of May working with children teaching English, creating an after school program, and setting up a medical clinic. We will be staying in home stays, which will give us an opportunity to get to know a local family and improve our Spanish as well. 

I wanted to go abroad this summer  to be immersed in a new environment where I would have an opportunity to do community service and explore my interest in Spanish and international travel. Since I do speak Spanish, I hope to travel to a country in Latin America and ATRAVES sounded like a perfect opportunity to do so. 

I'm excited to work with children as well as interact with the rest of the community. I hope to develop my Spanish speaking skills and learn about my strengths and weaknesses as a person as I will be placed far outside of my comfort zone. More importantly, I hope to leave a positive impact on this community and form strong relationships with people who lead very different lives than I do. I'm excited to be going on this adventure in just a couple of weeks!