Texas State's Global News Team's Trip to Guyana

Texas State’s Global News Team’s Trip to Guyana

by Fouad Ali on October 4, 2017

Guyana is the next stop for the Global News Team lead by Holly Wise from Jan. 2 to the 13 of 2018. The Global News Team is a study aboard program for all students in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The team has been up and running for the past two years in Nicaragua with the nursing school of Texas State University. Holly believes that while most study aboard programs are exactly what they mean, this program is different in that it is service oriented.

“[S]ome study aboard trips are true to that definition, you’re literally studying abroad, right? So, you’ll be in a class room in an international university that partners with Texas State, you’ll study there during the day and usually in the evening you’ll have free time to go and explore and sight see. Service learning trips are a little different there is usually no regimented class rooms time involved and the purpose of the trip is service oriented”, said Holly Wise.

It is like a mission trip, but without the religious aspect. The team usually consist of five to six students who volunteer in an international environment and live in the communities they visit. The students also had to take Feature Writing and Multi-Media Journalism.

Embed with service learning groups from Texas State, the program is given the task of tell the stories of the community as well as the stories of the students and faculty volunteering.

Editing photos, writing Facebook messages, posting to Twitter and Instagram. The would also organize strategies for what the next day is going to be like. Works such as stories and video documentaries are the primary focus of students who go on this trip.

In 2016 and 2017 the team embedded in the nursing program that provided free health care in clinics that are set up in local schools and churches. The nursing staff would see 15 to 20 people a day and would stay in each community for three to four days.

This next coming trip will be done with Texas State’s Department of Respiratory Care and will last 11 days.