Day 4: An UnBELIZEable Classroom Visit! (Olivia)

Picture livestock milling about in a lush green courtyard, children happily bantering in crisp, pressed uniforms, and passionate instructors with a passion for bettering their county and you’ll have pictured Mopan Technical High School, a trade school situated a few miles from the Guatemalan border.

Today my friends and I make the trek to MTHS to tour their facilities and interact with Belizean agriculture students. I was particularly excited for this opportunity because just like the Belizean students at Mopan Tech, I also attended trade school prior to coming to college.

During my time at MTHS, we learned about the hands-on opportunities that the school had to offer. For example, the agricultural students slaughtered their flock of chickens the day before we came to tour, they sell all of the produce that they grow, and even had a pond full of tilapia. This was strikingly similar to the goal of self-sufficiency that my own trade school had back home in the states.

Another similarity that I saw between Belizean vocational school and American vocational school was the passion that the instructors had for their students. Each classroom that we visited, regardless of the trade that was involved, was focused on innovation. And even though in the American context we tend to emphasize technological innovation over more traditional knowledge, innovation was nonetheless a crucial portion of their curriculum.

Finally, the highlight of my day had to have been my opportunity to speak with students. A particularly memorable conversation that I had was with one of our student tour guides. When I asked her why she chose agriculture, she told me that she enjoyed the challenge, loved to work the earth, and didn’t mind getting sweaty with the boys. She aspires to continue her education either in Honduras or the United States so that she can “make a big impact on her country someday.” It was in this moment that I truly saw a lot of myself in this young pupil, from her sheer grit to her passion for the industry. I have no doubt that she will accomplish many great, impactful things.

I have learned numerous important life lessons during my time in Belize, but so far my time at Mopan Technical High School has taken the cake. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to compare and contrast the Belizean and American education system than in a context that I have personally participated in myself. From the facilities, to the instructors, to the students themselves, I have no doubt that the future of Belizean agriculturalists are cultivated in the soil at Mopan Tech.

Olivia Richart is a sophomore majoring in Agricultural Sciences at Penn State.