• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Chaminade University

Chaminade University

  • VISIT
  • APPLY
  • GIVE
  • STUDENTS
  • PARENTS
  • ALUMNI
  • FACULTY/STAFF
  • CORONAVIRUS UPDATE
  • Admissions
    • Admissions Home
    • First-Year Students
    • Transfer Students
    • Graduate Students
    • Online Students
    • Military Students
    • Experiential Honors Program
    • Emerging Scholars Pre-College Program
  • Tuition & Aid
    • Financial Aid Home
    • Tuition & Expenses
    • Scholarships
    • $5,000 Graduate Scholarship
    • Net Price Calculator
  • Academics
    • Academics Home
    • Academic Programs
    • Advising & Career Development
    • Undergraduate Research
    • Service-Learning
    • Tutoring Services
    • Academic Course Catalog
    • Registrar
    • Sullivan Family Library
  • Student Life
    • About Student Life
    • Silversword Athletics
    • Student Activities and Leadership
    • Residence Life
    • Health & Wellness
    • Campus Ministry
    • Marianist Leadership Center
    • Campus Security
    • Transportation
    • Dining Services
    • Bookstore
  • About
    • Chaminade University News
    • Our Story
    • Leadership
    • Office of Advancement
    • Mission & Rector
    • Montessori Laboratory School
    • Facts & Figures
    • Accreditation & Memberships
Search
×

Search this web site

For ‘Outstanding Graduate’ Melissa Cortez, Aiding Needy Families in Lima, Peru, was Life-Changing

November 27, 2017 by University Communications & Marketing

Melissa Cortez, who’s earning a Master of Arts in Teaching (Elementary Education) degree at Chaminade University, received an education of a different sort when she volunteered to construct houses for needy families in Lima, Peru.

She learned about a vastly different way of life by witnessing the gratitude, generosity and steadfast faith in God that impoverished South Americans possess in abundance.

Accordingly, Cortez – who will be honored in December as the Division of Education’s “Outstanding Graduate” – received much more than she gave on a life-changing, 12,000-mile, roundtrip journey.

Melissa Cortez in Lima, Peru

“It was good to experience what the less fortunate experience,” said Cortez, a sixth-grade teacher at Damien Memorial School in Kalihi. “We left our phones and laptops behind. We traded all we knew for a simple life.”

Selecting Cortez and a small group of Mainland educators for the two-week home-building project was the Congregation of Christian Brothers, a religious order that sponsors Damien and other Edmund Rice Catholic schools in the U.S. and Canada.

The humanitarian mission’s primary focus, Cortez explained, was “standing in solidarity with those who are marginalized by poverty and injustice.” Peru is so overpopulated, she said, that families often live in small, flimsy houses high above the flatlands where there’s a lack of running water and electrical service.

“The Brothers dedicate their whole lives to helping these people,” Cortez said. “Every day they’re going up into the hills, getting to know the families, seeing what hardships they’re going through. They’re building solid and positive relationships with the people, especially those who are suffering – those who truly need help.”

Melissa Cortez in Lima, PeruCortez and her team assisted two families. The father of one family has a lung disease and can’t afford proper medical care. The other father is afflicted by seizures – caused by worms in his brain – and can no longer support his wife and two young boys.

When the volunteers finished their strenuous construction work each day, they wrote down their thoughts in journals.

“The Brothers asked us to reflect on what we did, the people we met,” Cortez said. “But the question wasn’t: What did we do for the less fortunate today? The question was: What did the less fortunate teach us today? The less fortunate taught us to be grateful. They taught us to have faith.”

Although Cortez only spent a fortnight in Peru, she left as a changed person.

“I realized that a lot of things I take for granted on a daily basis are luxuries to these people,” she said. “But they have an unwavering faith in God and they have their families. That’s really all they need to survive.”

The Master of Arts in Teaching program offers licensure in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Secondary Education and Special Education.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: Master of Arts in Teaching

Primary Sidebar

Chaminade University Logo

3140 Waialae Avenue
Honolulu, Hawaii 96816

Contact Us
Phone: (808) 735-4711
Toll-free: (800) 735-3733

facebook twitter instagram youtube linkedin

Visit

  • Plan a Visit
  • Campus Map (PDF)
  • Events

Resources

  • Campus Security
  • Student Consumer Information
  • Institutional Review Board
  • Title IX / Nondiscrimination Policy
  • Emergency Information
  • Careers

People

  • Students
  • Parents
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Staff
US News BadgeUS News Badge US News Badge

Footer

© Chaminade University of Honolulu

Terms and Conditions of Use
Site Information