Shorewood Graduate Returns to Guatemalan Orphanage after Eye-opening High School Trip

Molly Hayes almost didn't go on the Spanish department's trip to an orphanage in Antigua, Guatemala her freshman year at , but she decided to try it. Then she went back three times, one for each year of high school, and this year took a gap year before college to return again.

"The first night I was there, I was just in shock," Hayes said of her first trip. "I knew, this place is going to be really good for me, for everyone. The whole week I was just like, I hope this place will be in my life for a long time. When I left I knew I wasn’t just going to not go back. The kids are so loving. It’s like 24 hours of non-stop unconditional love from the children."

Hayes returned this summer with a group of high school students to teach English at the orphanage, called Hogar Santa Maria de Guadalupe. She then traveled to Peru where she stayed with a family she knew through a friend and taught English. She returned to the orphanage for the final month of her stay before flying back the United States on Sunday.

She hopes the orphanage will always be part of her life, although for now she is waiting for college admissions letters and will stay stateside at least until another opportunity arises to go abroad.

"I know I won’t go back for awhile because now I have to go to school and stuff, and have a real life, but I’ll continue to go back when I can," she said.

In taking a year off of school after high school, Hayes said she was hoping to find more direction before starting college. And although she isn't sure what she wants to do next, she said the experience helped her grow into herself.

"I feel like everyone who goes off to college, or goes anywhere, their personalities grow more into how they really are," Hayes said. "No one's told me, 'Oh you're different,' I just feel a little different. I feel like my personality has grown more toward what it's supposed to be, and I feel a lot older."

She said she has enjoyed her experiences abroad so much that she wants to permanently move out of the U.S.

"I have a desire to leave and not come back for a long time," Hayes said.

Living back at her Shorewood home, Hayes is working at Alterra in Shorewood, daydreaming about the friends she left in Guatemala and Peru, and reflecting on the motivation she felt there to act.

"The things you see are bad but they motivate you to help," Hayes said. "In Shorewood you don’t really see any need for change, but when you go to a rural town in the middle of a third world country and see a need for change, you feel a need inside you to help."

Hayes credits the high school trip, organized by former Spanish teacher Mary Pat Clasen, for making her interested in travel.

"I would have never been interested," Hayes said. "I hope that I would have found something that would have opened my eyes, but I definitely credit the high school trip. I never had experienced other cultures or languages before, and I fell in love with Spanish."