For many Paly students, summer consists of sleeping in, basking in the glorious California sun and spending mindless hours on the Internet. However, for one Paly student, this was not the case. While the sun still shone, there wasn’t much time for her to soak up the rays. Her summer days started with the wake-up call from a rooster at the crack of dawn and the closest computer was 30 miles away.

Senior Samantha Bromberg, along with many other students from the United States and Latin America, spent their past summer on a cultural exchange program known as Amigos. Amigos is a non-profit program that teaches students about Latin American culture in preparation for an extended stay in a specific foreign country.

In the program, students stay in separate households with a host family in a rural, Latin American town. Students choose to either help in the schools or on a building project for the community. In addition to this, students also participate in a Community-Based Initiative, a program that allows members of the community to choose a specific project that will most benefit them.

“The CBI is really up to the community; they know what they need better than Amigos does,” Bromberg said.

For her CBI project, Bromberg helped set up a computer center for her town, La Barranca, in Nicaragua. Thus far, Bromberg has received four computers and a total of $250 in donations toward transporting the computers to Latin America. She hopes to continue to raise more money to buy computer monitors and computer tables.

“[My project] is a continuation from a project started last year,” Bromberg said.

To raise money for her project, titled “Centro de Computacion,” Bromberg held a bakesale last Sunday, Oct 7. The bake sale included food from both American and Nicaraguan cultures.

“It [the bakesale] was really great, though I was surprised that most people bought the American baked goods first,” Bromberg said.

“We sold almost everything we cooked and made around $300, which can buy us almost two monitors. While we still need money for the other monitors, we are off to a good start.”

Bromberg also worked in La Barranca’s primary school’s health center. While folding gauze for hours may not seem like a fulfilling cultural experience, it was Bromberg’s CBI project that was truly rewarding.

Bromberg explains how students, unlike herself, typically participate in their CBI only for the duration of their Amigos Summer trip.

“A few people go back to visit their community and stay in touch, but I haven’t heard of anyone else continuing their project after summer,” Bromberg said.

Bromberg believes Amigos provides a better influence on both the student and their community in comparison to other exchange programs.

“Other groups, such as ECI (Edu-Culture International) students go to class to learn,” Bromberg said. “There is less culture because students interact with other Americans. Other programs such as mission trips during Spring Break are really just building projects, and again there is little interaction with the culture.”

Bromberg feels that, coming from such a privileged part of the world, it is necessary to learn about and help other less privileged areas.

“It [the exchange program] is an important experience to have, whether you have it in high school or college,” Bromberg said. “While my project was technically finished over summer, there is always more that can be done to help.”

Bromberg has made a facebook group for “Centro de Computacion”. If you would like to help out or learn more information, please go to the group at http://hs.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5310574212&ref=mf