Lifelong Learning

Larry has been given the opportunity to pursue a long-time dream of working on his PhD degree. This summer and fall semesters he is returning to The Ohio State University in order to continue studying for a degree in "Community and Extension Education". We will then return to Honduras for the first six months of 2015. 

At a time when we are once again going through a major transition in our careers as missionaries, we are in a position to use our education in two major directions. Obviously, one major goal is for Larry to become better prepared in order to facilitate the learning process of as many people in Honduras as possible. He has also been given the unanticipated opportunity of being directly involved in the education of OSU students. 

Larry's future studies will be focused on learning how to extend vocational education to communities surrounding our vocational school in Choluteca. The vocational school administration has been innovative in efforts at establishing the "mobile classroom" concept. Rather than have students travel in from surrounding areas to a centrally located educational facility, we have taken the instructors, equipment, and materials to the communities where our students live. This has been an especially effective way to teach sewing, computer, and refrigeration classes. In the future we expect to expand community education to other courses such as agriculture education. We also plan to work extensively with developing youth organizations in both urban and rural areas.

One exciting unanticipated consequence of our relationship to OSU has been our opportunity to work directly with OSU students in Choluteca. The College of Nursing has been sending students to Choluteca since 2000. Over the past several years, we have also been hosting students from the Colleges of Medicine, Linguistics, Pharmacy, Engineering, Agriculture and Construction Systems Management. Students come under the "Study Abroad" program and receive academic credit for their experience. 

O-H-I-O

OSU students involved in education in Choluteca have been doing a variety of projects that serve to benefit the local communities in and around Choluteca. They have done projects such as setting up aquaponics systems, constructing hoop-houses for gardens, and designing courses for the vocational school. One important component of the Study Abroad program is the cultural experience that the OSU students achieve.

Larry is blessed to have been assigned a position as a Graduate Teaching Associate while studying at OSU. This means that there will be no tuition costs. Part of his GTA responsibilities this summer semester will be to help develop a course in International Development which will be taught at OSU this fall.