Rhonda Martinez ’09 had to change her lesson plan. She wanted the 18 students at the literacy camp on the southern tip of Belize to measure their height with shoes, but some of the six-year-olds came to class barefoot each day.

“A lot of them wore the same clothes every day too,” said the Sociology major and Education minor. “Even though they were lacking so much, they were always so respectful and eager to learn. You can see how much they value education.”

Martinez volunteered in Belize this summer through a program with the Community College of Baltimore County. She developed a lesson plan focusing on music and the arts.

Each day started with riotous dancing as students sang the Hokey Pokey and clapped and waddled to the Chicken dance. Later, she taught kids simple science experiments with bubbles, magnets and balloons. And with shy strokes of the hand, many finger-painted for the first time.

Martinez glows as she describes teaching in the tiny schoolhouse with paved dirt floors and walls so thin that all work ceased when the kids next door started singing.

“It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities,” she said. “I had to take it.”

Martinez plans to become an elementary school teacher after graduation. She currently substitute teaches and volunteers in her children’s classes.