Meet the Anton Fellows: Using youth soccer to promote community
Interview with Rebecca Dezan
Varsity soccer player
Rebecca Dezan '06 is completing a minor in
education
and a concentration in urban
development and social change (UDSC). An
Anton Fellowship
will allow her to spend five weeks in Guatemala this summer, coaching local youth in
soccer as a way of fostering a sense of community. After completing her B.A., she hopes
to take advantage of Clark's fifth year free program to complete a master's degree in
community development
and planning.
While in Worcester, Dezan has translated her love of soccer into a way of giving back to the local community. She, along with her teammates, meets one morning a week with students at a local elementary school, helping them with their writing through the Put a Kick in Writing Program. She also volunteers with Cultural Exchange Through Soccer, a program that she describes as "giving Worcester youth the chance to play, learn, and grow with other youth in a supervised and fun way." Dezan has been impressed with the way participation in soccer fosters friendships between children of all ages and ethnic backgrounds, and provides their parents with a way to get to know each other.
In a recent conversation, Dezan discussed the goals of her Anton Fellowship.
What are you hoping to accomplish during your stay in Guatemala?
I'm planning to start an after-school community youth soccer program, one that would mirror a similar program here in Worcester called Cultural Exchange Through Soccer. I've been involved in that soccer program through the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Network Center where I'm an intern. Cultural Exchange Through Soccer seeks to foster community development by providing youth with three hours of soccer participation every Saturday. When parents drop the children off for practice, they meet other parents, which helps to create a network of local families. I want to take that idea to Guatemala. First and foremost I want Guatemalan children to have some organized soccer time every afternoon. But I also want to see their parents use that opportunity to connect with each other. Perhaps we could organize a dinner for players and their parents. I'm not sure what to expect yet. But the idea is to foster community development through youth soccer.
Do you speak Spanish?
Some, and I'm going to be taking Spanish lessons while I'm there.
Where in Guatemala will you be located?
I'll begin by spending three weeks at a Spanish language school in Quetzaltenango, and then two weeks at a sister school on a coffee plantation in the highlands outside of Colomba. The schools are part of a program called La Hermandad Educativa, which was founded by activist Spanish teachers in the late 1980s as a way to bring steady income into small, impoverished communities in Guatemala. The schools provide Spanish language instruction to students who have a desire to learn while being an integral part of the local community. La Hermandad Educativa encourages these students to engage in volunteer work while they study Spanish. Income from the schools helps fund these community projects. In both schools, youth programs are very much needed.
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