Earlier this summer, I stood on the side of a hill in Guatemala watching a University of Illinois Springfield student mix concrete by hand for the first time in her life. Getting there meant meeting on campus at 2 a.m., driving to St. Louis Lambert International Airport, and traveling for more than 12 hours, but by then none of that mattered. She was roasting in the sun, exhausted and grinning ear to ear. This wasn’t a class. Nobody was earning credit or a grade. She was there because she wanted to be, and somewhere between the first wheelbarrow of gravel and the last coat of paint, I watched her stop thinking of it as a trip and start thinking of it as her purpose.
That is the moment I hope for every year.
I recently traveled with a group of UIS students, staff, and alumni to Antigua, Guatemala, on our co-curricular service experience. The trip was made possible in part by the generosity of donors who help make these experiences affordable for UIS students. We partnered with ImaginingGuatemala to build a home for a family in Pastores. It was the second house UIS helped build through this partnership, and the 266th the organization has completed overall. Over four days, our group poured concrete, hung doors, laid tile and wired the house for electricity. We turned a dirt-floor structure into a home with running water and a door that locks.
On paper, that is the project. In practice, it is so much more.
Trips like this remind us that the things we consider simple or routine are far from guaranteed for people all over the world. These experiences help ground us in gratitude and perspective. Over the years, I have watched those lessons take hold time and again. Students arrive tired from travel and a little unsure of what to expect. By the second day, something shifts. They stop worrying about getting dirty and start building friendships.
Mercedes Dick, a graduate student in our public health and public policy programs, told me the trip was really about building relationships, learning from another culture and seeing how much a small group of dedicated people can accomplish in just a few days. She called it some of the hardest physical work she has ever done, but said she would go again without hesitation.
Yash Gajera, a transfer student majoring in computer science and theater, described the moment that stuck with him most: watching the mother of the family for whom we built the house be moved to tears by what our group had done. He said it nearly brought him to tears, too, and that it simply felt good to do something for someone else.
Michelle Wilhite, one of our online students, talked about the people as much as the project. She said coming together with strangers for a shared cause, being immersed in Guatemalan culture, and forming a genuine connection with the family whose home they were building were the best parts of the experience.
I share their experiences because they capture why I believe in this program. These trips exist to give UIS students a chance to step outside the world they know, work alongside people whose daily lives look nothing like their own, and come home understanding a little more about both the world and themselves. For several of our students, this was their first time leaving the country or doing hard, unpaid physical work for someone else’s benefit.
What I want for them is simple: to come home changed and to notice the people around them a little more—the neighbor who could use a hand, or the classmate who is struggling. If a week in Guatemala nudges even a few students toward a life of service, the trip has done exactly what we hoped.
Being completely honest, I do not go on these trips purely to give. I go because I keep receiving more than I give. Every year, I come home having learned something from our students and from the people we work alongside in Guatemala. They teach me about resilience, hospitality and what people can build together in four days when everyone shows up ready to work.
While a house takes four days to build, the lessons it teaches last a lot longer.
Ryan Bye is assistant vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Illinois Springfield.
This article appears in July 16-22, 2026.
