KU doctoral student volunteers for service projects in U.S., Costa Rica

LAWRENCE -- A University of Kansas doctoral student from Lenexa spent two weeks of her winter break volunteering on a construction project in Costa Rica and plans to volunteer for yet another project in Vietnam in a year or two.

Stephany Brown Hughes, who will earn a Ph.D. in educational psychology and research in May, made the trip through Global Volunteers, a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul, Minn.

After graduation, she plans to continue her work helping people through transitions in life and business as a life coach at the Encouragement Center, the business she runs in Lenexa.

Her future plans also include writing a book about her experience in Costa Rica, called "It's Not About the Bodega" ("bodega" translates as grocery or wine cellar), and volunteering on another Global Volunteers trip to Vietnam, where she will teach English.

In Costa Rica, Hughes served on a 12 -member team from across the United States. The U.S. volunteers worked side-by-side with local residents to build a community center in Canitas, an agrarian village near the Monte Verde Cloud Forest, about 140 miles northwest of San Jose.

Hughes said she was impressed by the strong family systems and the work ethic of the Costa Ricans. "It's all about the people. It's all about the relationships," Hughes said.

The project was the third Hughes had participated in with Global Volunteers. Her involvement with the organization began with a trip to the mailbox.

"I received a brochure in the mail from them and thought, ' I want to do this,'" she said.

Hughes first volunteered on a project in Jonestown, Miss., located in one of the poorest counties in the country. There she was part of a group who created a summer recreation program for the town's children.

She then branched out to a project in Wainai, Hawaii, where she worked at a medical center, doing landscape work, painting and interviewing clients for their oral histories.