In the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, people living there said that Puerto Rico stood still. An island already crippled by poor infrastructure and budget issues found itself torn apart by winds of 175 mph, causing nearly $100 billion in damage.

Hoping to make a change, a group of Kent School students visited the island over Spring Break on a service project. In the Boricua city of Ponce on the southern side of the island, students helped to rebuild the damage. Despite it being a year and a half after the hurricane made landfall, the project was still in full swing when students arrived.

Although initially, their project was to rebuild roofs throughout the village, their mission changed according to the needs of the locals. The Puerto Rican ambassador for the program was a former math teacher and had connections to many schools in the area. Thus, instead of rebuilding the roofs, Kent students rebuilt a school theater auditorium.

Most of their time was spent rebuilding a damaged school building, but the participants believed that their greatest memories were of the immense gratitude from the people they helped and of the profound implications of their volunteer work. Mariya Novosad ‘22 described the hope she saw in the eyes of both the students and teachers and called the trip an excellent opportunity to take stock of many things we take for granted.

The Kent students who were on this trip were all thrilled they could help make a positive impact in the lives of others and they hope to see pictures of the first school production any day now!