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Partly Cloudy Off to Uganda, with love
Calhoun senior to volunteer in African nation torn apart by civil war
In early June, Calhoun High School senior Erin Zseller will head to the war-ravaged nation of Uganda as part of a two-week volunteer mission sponsored by the non-profit organization Invisible Children.
Zseller was chosen from a pool of 10 Calhoun applicants, and she will be the fourth student from the school to make the trip to Uganda in the past three years.
All of the applicants are enrolled in the Senior Experience class that the school offers, an English and social studies class that gives seniors the opportunity to take part in internships, as well learn about world events and organize fundraisers for various nonprofit groups.
Invisible Children requires applicants to write essays detailing why they believe they should be chosen to go to Uganda. The winning entry was selected by Calhoun’s four Senior Experience teachers, Kate Caporusso, Jason Elias, Jen Hahn and Tanya Di Mambro.
In February, Zseller received a call from Di Mambro informing her that she had been selected. “I started crying when I found out and started jumping up and down,” said Zseller. “It was a big celebration.”
“It was a very difficult choice for us,” said Caporusso. “Erin really had the fire in her eyes, but it was really the work that she did educating other people.”
For the past five years, the class has had a strong commitment to Invisible Children, which focuses on raising awareness about the civil war raging in northern Uganda, particularly on the use of children by the Lord’s Resistance Army, a military group formed in 1987. Headed by Joseph Kony, the resistance army is engaged in an open rebellion against the Ugandan government and abducts Ugandan children and brainwashes them to fight. Invisible Children raises money as well as awareness about the children’s plight.
Each year, Invisible Children allows one high school per region to select a student to make the trip to Uganda.Calhoun raised more than $16,000 through various fundraisers such as Spa Day, Fashion Show Day and a fundraiser that Zseller organized for which students had to solicit sponsors for essays they wrote about their own insecurities.
