The Voices program had reserved a room for Monday Sept. 20th
with enough seating for 60 people to attend the presentation about
a trip that eight Saint Louis University students took to Nicaragua
for an immersion experience this summer. But, when approximately
130 people showed up the entire presentation was moved into the
lobby area of the first floor of the Humanities building.

The trip is an extension of the Theology department and is
funded through the Mev Puleo Scholarship in Latin American Theology
and Culture. Mev Puleo was a 1985 Saint Louis University graduate
who used her skills as a photojournalist to illustrate the poverty
and region struggles of Latin America and worked to bring a sense
of dignity to the people of the places she visited. She died in
1996 of a malignant brain tumor, and her parents are continuing
their daughter’s work by providing this scholarship to experience
Nicaragua for two months in the summer.

The presentation was given by seven of the eight students who
attended, it and was emceed by Julie Rubio, Ph.D., the program
director. Each student described his or her own experiences in
conjunction with certain aspects of the trip, such as poverty, the
experience, family, women, religion, United States-Nicaragua
relations and the return.

The presentation began with some words from Rubio, in place of
Christine Baudin, the trip leader, who was unable to attend. Baudin
briefly described that the students, once accepted for the
scholarship, meet for classes in the spring semester to learn about
Latin American culture. Once in Nicaragua, Rubio explained, the
students stay with host families, take classes, and attend a
service project.

The trip is open to theology majors and minors with some
proficiency in Spanish and a background in service.

Each student gave a little piece of what the trip meant to them
and how it affected their lives.

“I am still having problems articulating my experience,” said
Jen Theby, a student who went on the trip.

Some expressed their experience through Powerpoint
presentations, and others through stories of the families they
stayed with or the people with whom they worked.

The presentation ran smoothly once the space issue was settled.
But, about halfway through the night, the use of a microphone made
it easier for the crowd to hear the presentations, despite the
technical difficulties that went with the microphone.

Kelley Krejnik was the last to speak and confronted the issues
that the presentation had brought to her mind. She expressed how
hard it was to come home and hard it still is for her and her
fellow classmates to deal with the intense experience. She ended by
telling the crowd, “All I can think to do right now is to ask you,
please keep listening not only to hear us but to participate in the
conversation.”

Peter and Evelyn Puleo, parents of Mev Puleo, were then thanked
for sponsoring the trip, and the presentation adjourned.

The crowd mingled for a while in the lobby, where there were
refreshments, a table with Pax Christi serving Fair Trade coffee,
tables with pictures from the trip and a sign-up sheet for the
School of Americas protest.

“We are very impressed that the students are fashioning these
experiences for themselves and we want people to hear about it,”
said Mary Beth Gallagher, the head of the Voices program, who
helped sponsor the presentation.