CofC Education Major Dives Headfirst Into Volunteer Adventure

^{Above: Noa Benmergi (front right) strikes a balance between service and exploration, enjoying the opportunity to experience the beautiful scenery, culture and history of Buenos Aires with her team. (Photos provided)}

Exciting, rewarding, immersive. That’s how Noa Benmergi describes her three-week volunteer adventure in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Her mission was to teach English to children from impoverished areas of the city. That meant packing up everything she had learned in her early childhood education major thus far, hauling it on a 9-hour flight and putting it into practice on a whole new continent.

Having grown up in a culturally diverse family, Benmergi has always loved to travel. As she began to dive deeper into her studies and sketch out a career path, the College of Charleston junior realized that she craved a travel opportunity that would bolster her experience in the education field and give her a chance to serve.

“I wanted to travel with a purpose,” she says, “to expand my horizons and take what I have learned here and bring it to communities outside of the country.”

That opportunity finally arrived when Benmergi discovered International Volunteer HQ, a global organization based out of New Zealand that operates a wide variety of service projects in over 45 countries.

“You just pick a location and see if they have a project there,” Benmergi explains. “The projects are aimed at underprivileged communities, striving to meet the UN sustainability goals of providing quality education, preventing poverty and improving the quality of life.”

When Benmergi discovered that one of IVHQ’s projects was a teaching mission in Buenos Aires, she jumped at the opportunity.

“I had never been to Argentina before, but my mom is from Peru, and I know the language,” she says. “So, going to Buenos Aires wasn’t a total shock, but everything was still so new. I didn’t really know what to expect or anyone else who was going.”

In other words, this mission trip offered the perfect mix of the familiar with the unknown.

Although Benmergi was the only College of Charleston student in her volunteer group, she wasn’t the only one traveling to Argentina. Ten students from the College’s International Scholars Program – a joint initiative from its Honors College, International Studies Program and School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs – embarked on a three-week study abroad trip in May. What’s more, nine Cougars are spending the fall 2024 semester in a faculty-led study abroad experience in Buenos Aires. Incredible travel opportunities make a small world!

When Benmergi arrived in the city, she was captivated by the intermingling of the modern, fast-paced energy of city life with rich, historical charm – it felt a little like Charleston! She even found herself lodging in the heart of the city, surrounded by volunteers from various countries.

“I got to connect with people from different cultures and backgrounds, and I clicked with them right away,” she shares. “It was a transformative experience that helped me expand my perspective and be open-minded.”

Finally, this was the immersive experience Benmergi had been hoping for. Still – while the whirlwind of new faces, experiences, sights and sounds was exhilarating – walking into the mission school after a 45-minute, early-morning subway ride was heartbreaking.

“It was rough,” Benmergi admits with a sigh. “The school was in an underprivileged, marginalized area of the city. It was hard to imagine that this was the kids’ realities since I’m coming from a bubble in the U.S.”

Although her bubble had popped, Benmergi wasn’t thrown off guard. A human development class she had recently completed as part of her major helped her appropriately perceive and react to these new circumstances.

“A large majority of the students I was working with didn’t come from stable families, so they have a lot more baggage. As a teacher, you have to be flexible with that,” Benmergi says, explaining that she recognized that many of the students lacked needed structure and support at home, and their behavior in the classroom was a projection of this deficiency. “Having that education and background was really useful so that I could observe, identify and work with other resources within the team.”

Despite the economic and behavioral challenges, Benmergi’s compassionate, empathetic approach combined with her proficiency in Spanish helped her form connections with the students. For two to four hours each morning, she worked side by side with the local instructor, engaging the students in conversation, expanding their English vocabulary and pegging away at exercises in their workbooks.

“I was striving to make a positive impact in whatever way I could,” Benmergi shares.

Benmergi even served as an impromptu translator to her fellow volunteers.

“Some volunteers, like those from the UK, found it harder to connect since they didn’t know the language as well,” she says. “They leaned on me to help them assimilate, since they felt more comfortable seeing me interact with the students and could learn from that. This helped them slowly build up their confidence.”

The trip also gave Benmergi her own boost in confidence.

“I’ve gained a whole new level of independence and have developed communication skills both with the kids and with other teachers who aren’t Americans,” she says. “Post-grad, I’m thinking about teaching English in Europe or going to a different country in South America for a time before coming back to the States.

“I was raised with a broad range of cultures, so being open-minded was always molded into me,” she adds. “I want to continue approaching everything with an open mind. I want this mission trip to be a steppingstone.”

Benmergi firmly believes that a trip like hers could be a steppingstone for her fellow education majors, too.

“If you have the opportunity to study or volunteer abroad and get out of your comfort zone, do it,” she encourages. “Aside from just travel experience and learning how they do things in other places, you are growing as a person, meeting people that you would never meet otherwise, making amazing memories and giving back to communities in need. Even if doesn’t go the way you expected, you will still get so much out of it!”

Benmergi certainly did.