Center student creates digital library for rural Guatemalans

September 30, 2022

Zoë Case is no stranger to the center’s programming. She’s currently completing her final semester at the University and will soon receive a BFA in Design, and she is taking the center’s Appalachia seminar where she will travel to the region over fall break. Among other things, the Appalachia course gives students an opportunity to see what work for the common good looks like in different settings. Case has also completed the center’s Act Justly course and was a prize winner in the center’s first annual Arts of Dignity Juried Exhibit for her piece, We Are Sacred Too. 

This past summer, Case and a group of students from universities across the United States met in Nebaj, a town in rural Guatemala, to complete several projects in the areas of education, community health, and tourism. The work was part of a summer immersion program with the Institute for Social Concerns and was connected with the Social Entrepreneurship Corps. Case was initially interested in completing the center’s summer  immersion program in 2020, a plan which was sidelined by the coronavirus pandemic. When the opportunity arose to complete an in-person immersion again, Case signed up for the project in Guatemala for summer 2022, appreciating the interdisciplinary nature of entrepreneurship. For Case, who attended a diverse high school, global citizenship and the ability to see others’ perspectives is important. “I like to understand different people’s experiences,” Case said, “because I know that what I grew up with is not everyone’s experience.”

Once in Nebaj, Case worked on two major projects: painting classrooms and gathering information for a digital library. The supplemental educational center where Case worked, El Centro Explorativo, provided Wi-Fi and other educational resources for students and families to complete homework and connect to the internet for personal use. Case guided students in painting murals in the building, and each student has a hand print with their name as a part of a tree mural. “The idea was for the students to paint the space to give them a sense of ownership,” Case noted. For the digital library project, Case spent most of her time in Guatemala interviewing students and families to find out what types of books they would most like to be able to access. She also looked into the types of devices most families used to access online resources. 

Once back in the US, Case collaborated with the four other program participants, who attend other universities across the country, to find texts requested by families in Nebaj. Over 125 books were pulled in a range of genres: children’s and young adult books, psychology, entrepreneurship, classic fiction, and even chess. While most were in Spanish, the team made sure to find books in Ixil, a Mayan language still spoken in Guatemala. The group created a video guide on how to use the digital library and find digital texts beyond those provided. While the scope of the project was limited to one summer for Case, the library will continue to expand in the hands of others moving forward.

To learn more about summer immersion programs at the center, go to socialconcerns.nd.edu/ndbridge.