Welcome to Issue 9, Volume 2 of
We hope you had a great summer! Whether you’re an alum, a parent, a friend of STRIVE, or a soon-to-be STRIVEr, you can now stay connected with the STRIVE network. Find all of the news and info about STRIVE programs, projects, and alumni activities in one simple place.
PS – want to receive the Monthly Cuy to your email every month? Sign up here!
What’s Goin’ On?
It’s August and we just finished another great summer of service, athletics, and adventure in both Peru and Kenya. Normally, we reserve this section of of the newsletter for news from our alums, but we want to focus this time on what’s been goin’ on with our 2014 programs.
BUT before we do that – we do have one big piece of alum news. Emma Langley (STRIVE-Peru, ‘12) has progressed from a great athlete to literally one of the top athletes in the WORLD. This past weekend, Emma competed at the ITU World Championships for Triathlon and finished SECOND for her age group. In the whole world. That’s right. Second. In the World. All we can say is… wow! Congrats, Emma! Stay tuned for more on this incredible achievement.
Emma Langley won the 2014 National Championships before finishing second at the WORLD Championship for under-20 Triathlon!
Now – back to our regularly scheduled programming. First, as a part of STRIVE-Kenya, students spent two sessions living, training, and working in Iten and several surrounding towns. Students worked at the Kamariny Primary School, leading classes, and after school classes. The group also used some of their time and fundraising dollars to help finish a library for the school and stock in with books and supplies.
Training in Kenya was incredible, as STRIVErs were able to join the Kenyan “Fartlek” run, running with dozens of the top athletes in the world, including marathon world record holder, Wilson Kipsang. Trips to the local Iten track were also star studded, including selfie-sessions with David Rudisha.
Both groups were also treated to a new part of the program – a visit to the nearby town of Kitale, home of Wesley Korir and his Kenyan Kids foundation. Wesley – a long-time friend of STRIVE in addition to being a Boston Marathon champion and Kenyan Member of Parliament – was incredibly welcoming to our groups, talking about service work, athletics, and life in Kenya. The group was able to work with the students sponsored by his foundation, gifted pre-high school and pre-college students, by helping prepare for school entrance exams.
Finally, the trip featured plenty of adventure as well. Between training sessions and helping at Kamariny, STRIVErs visited a local elephant sanctuary and finished the trip with an eye-opening safari through the Masai Mara. Check out the Facebook page for tons of pictures and videos from Kenya.
STRIVE-Peru saw similar success with 7 weeks of great work in the Sacred Valley. STRIVE high school students and college interns worked together teaching both in-classroom at multiple schools as well as teaching free after-school English lessons put on by the STRIVE Center. The group also worked on myriad other projects including maintaining the STRIVE Center running track, organizing a huge public field day, installing a running-water system for a local school, and helping to finish construction at a local kindergarten. Check out this blog post for details on all of our work.
Training in the idyllic mountains of Peru was as amazing as always. Our group of athletes took the to dirt roads through the Sacred Valley every morning for runs along the beautiful Vilcanota River. What a way to start the morning.
The group even took on a new challenge in summiting “Mt. Doom” (STRIVE-named), the 14,000+ ft summit towering above Pisac. A long hike, but worth it. Students and staff finished the summer off as always with a 4 day hiking trip to Machu Picchu. Stay tuned to the blog and Facebook page for more photos coming!
Thinking Ahead – 2015 Summer Details Coming Soon!
The end of Summer is fast approaching – with school and practice already here for some of you! As the Fall begins, we’ll soon be announcing plans, dates, and locations for next summer. Make sure you stay on the lookout for updates as there are so many benefits for signing up early – discounts, guaranteed placement in the program you’d like to attend, and more.
STRIVE staff will be visiting schools and meets this Fall and Winter. If you think your school or town would be a good stop for us, please email us at contact@strivetrips.org.
STRIVE Forward
With a summer of great service work behind us, we want to say THANK YOU to everyone who supported STRIVE over the last year. With your help, we accomplished work in country as well as bringing some students on STRIVE programs through our STRIVE Scholarship Program.
The work never ends, however, and now it’s time to start thinking forward to 2015. We’ve accomplished so much but still have tons of work left to do on some of the projects we’ve been working on. We’ll be announcing a few new fundraising projects in the coming weeks as we prepare for next year.
The STRIVE College Intern Program
Hey college students. Do you want an incredible summer experience working with younger students, doing awesome service work, and having the opportunity to train at altitude in the beautiful mountains of Peru and Kenya?? The STRIVE College Intern Program has become a staple of the STRIVE experience and is one of our most popular programs. We’ll have more details including a 2015 application up soon, so be sure to stay tuned as the program will fill quickly.
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