We Really ARE All Alike…by Nicole Thomas

Nicole Thomas is a student at Evansville High School in Evansville, Wisconsin.  She is a former host sister for the 2009 Nicaraguan Youth Ambassadors, and attended the 2009 Partners of the Americas Midwest Regional Conference in Chicago. Partners will be hosting a Conference on Higher Education and International Volunteer Service on Nov. 12-14, 2009, so we will be highlighting stories from youth that are involved with volunteer service through Partners and their universities throughout the Western Hemisphere. Nicole sets the example of dedication to service and civic responsibility as a high school youth and this is just a preview of her future endeavors as a volunteer.

I have been involved in many projects/programs in my school and throughout my community but one that particularly comes to mind is the Hispanic Community Project. The Hispanic Community Project or HCP is a group that was started by the high school and middle school Spanish teachers here in Evansville, Wisconsin. The goal of this group was to bring the students and the growing Hispanic community closer together through knowledge and youth.

Nichole with Grace and Alvaro, former YAs, at Midwest Conference

One of the main projects/events that our HCP group organizes is our annual fiesta. Every year we put together a fiesta in which we encourage everyone to get involved to help break down the cultural barriers within our community. At our fiesta we have food from all the different Spanish speaking countries along with traditional music and dances of the Hispanic background. Since we’ve been doing the fiesta, the tolerance level in our school and community has skyrocketed. I believe that it is events and activities such as these that should be done in every community to raise awareness about the other cultures and to make people realize that although people of different decent might appear different on the outside, they are more often than not just like us in every way.

Nicole at 2009 Midwest Regional Conference in Chicago

HCP is actually the first place that I had even heard of Partners of the Americas and it was all because of Amy Wiza and the wonderful presentation she gave our class on the Wisconsin-Nicaragua chapter. Amy came to our school looking for host families for the Nicaragua students that would be in Wisconsin for a week. Being a youth ambassador myself through People to People Youth Ambassadors, I knew what it was like to be in another country and I knew what I wanted to be like as a host.

Being an active member of the Hispanic Community Project is very important to me because without it, our school and community might be at the same place it was five or six years ago. Evansville used to be afraid of change and new people but with the help of HCP and Partners of the Americas, our town has come to grow on the knowledge that students/people from other countries are just like we are if we give them a chance. I think that to live a happy and successful life one must be tolerant and accepting of others and I can’t think of a better way to promote cultural understanding than by utilizing the youth from different countries.