Meet the UNC students spending Spring Break building homes in Guatemala

Most students are going home or on a vacation during Spring Break, devoting time to rest and relaxation after a stressful midterm season. However, nine UNC students will spend their Spring Break differently: building homes in Guatemala. 

These students are members of the recently formed Guatemalan culture organization From Houses to Homes UNC-Chapel Hill. The organization was co-founded by sophomores Nikita Billman, a business major, and Kristina Kim, a pre-nursing major.  

The club is partnered with the Guatemalan nonprofit From Houses to Homes, which builds homes and provides medical care and education to support the country, which has high rates of poverty. 

Billman and Kim both worked with From Houses to Homes in high school, each taking a trip to build homes in Guatemala in March 2017. After the experience left a lasting impression on each of them, they knew they wanted to continue working with the organization at UNC. 

“Having that eye-opening experience, I realized, 'Wow, I’ve grown so much in the 10 days I was there and my Spanish got so much better — I really want to open this up to other people, so that they can have this great experience too,'” Billman said. 

As a result, they established a club at UNC benefiting the nonprofit in fall 2017 as first-years by writing a constitution and bylaws, and finding their faculty sponsor, chemistry professor Brian Hogan. Due to many administrative duties in their first year, they began recruiting at this year's FallFest. 

While the club’s central goal is to take annual trips to Guatemala to build homes, it also wants members to gain a deeper understanding of Guatemalan tradition and further develop their cultural competence through enrichment activities.

These enrichment activities include eating native Guatemalan food and hosting supplemental lectures for students to learn about Guatemalan culture.

This is the group’s first trip to Antigua, Guatemala, so the number of people going has been kept small. In their nine-day trip from March 9-17, they plan to build two homes in indigenous communities.

Working alongside the Guatemalan families who will live in the homes, groups of four to five volunteers and two professional workers will replace a cornstalk shack with a 13-by-19-block home that is sturdy and affordable to maintain.

“It’s the whole process from taking down their old home to building their new home with a roof, a locking door, a window, a floor. It’s a big change, and we paint it with them,” Kim said.

Once the construction is complete, a key ceremony is held in which the families are given the key to their new homes, an emotional and fulfilling moment for all involved. 

“We all are all able to work together on a project and communicate and have fun — I think that was the most important part — the people,” Kim said. 

Billman and Kim have been eager to return to Guatemala since their last trip. Amelia Rustin, a junior majoring in economics and global studies, will join them on the trip.

“It’s going to a different country and experiencing something with a group of college students, so that’s fun in itself, and I’ve always found service to be fun given how fortunate I am,” Rustin said.

While the majority of their trip will be devoted to service, they will have a few days to explore the country and its culture as well. 

“I learned the most through being in Guatemala and experientially learning through talking with people, so I feel like I want people to take away experiences from this organization and then go forward and be more empathetic to other people and understand that everyone has different life experiences, and take away some knowledge about Guatemalan language, culture and tradition,” Billman said. 

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