Castlepollard student heading to nicaragua
A mixture of teaching and building work – with maybe the odd game of football thrown in – are what lies ahead of Castlepollard student David Higgins this summer.
The teaching won’t be here at home however: he’s taking the big step of travelling to the central American country, Nicaragua, to spend six weeks as a volunteer on an ongoing project run from UCD.
“I suppose, I was just thinking I wanted to do something this summer, and while for a lot of people, their first thought might be Africa, I wanted to do something different, and I have a lot of interest in history and political events,” says David, who is currently undertaking teaching practice at St Benildus College in Dublin as part of the first year of his Higher Diploma in Education studies, which will ultimately see him qualify as a teacher.
A keen hurler, who, has been playing for UCD this year, and who for three years was part of the Westmeath hurling team, David is looking forward to the challenge of travelling to a country where only around 30 per cent of children get to complete primary school.
“It’s different in different areas, there would be different standards. Where I am going to, Somoto, in the north, is a very poor area,” says David.
The UCD Volunteer Overseas project has been running in Nicaragua for seven years, and this year, there are 19 students travelling over, some of them nursing students, some of them physiotherapists.
“I didn’t know any of them until just before Christmas,” says David, who has also begun an intensive Spanish course in readiness for the experience.
He hopes he may get the chance to do some coaching out there, as that is something he greatly enjoys, assisting with the U14 and U16 hurlers at St Benildus College – and if he gets the chance to slip a couple of balls and jerseys into the crate of equipment that UCD is sending out, he’ll definitely try and do so.
To fund the cost of his time volunteering, David has a charity donations page online, and has had a table quiz in Castlepollard.
In addition, he has received a donation from the St Benildus College charity fund – a pot of €50,000 raised by the students and teachers of the school through their ‘Run for Life’ event in aid of charities.
When he returns home, in mid-August, it will be straight back into an Irish classroom for David, and he reckons his experience in such a completely different culture can only help him with his future career.