Alexis Wieczorek

This past year, I was awarded the Vira I. Heinz Scholarship which enabled me to travel to Bolivia.  The experience I received from this generous endowment provided me with a rich and memorable summer education. I participated in the Amizade Global-Service learning program through West Virginia University. While there, I enrolled in two classes: one in Latin American Political Extremism and the other in International Development.  Since my program was service learning, I also worked during the week for an indigenous community outside of Cochabamba, where I helped build a school for children. On the weekends, I also traveled throughout Bolivia seeing such things as the rain forest and the salt flats.  Living in the new surroundings introduced to me the new sights, sounds, and smells of a foreign culture and a new insight into the third world. Throughout my travel, I learned and experienced an unfamiliar place in which I came to love and appreciate through its art and culture.