On March 8th, At 4 a.m., Audrey C. ‘26 leaps out of bed as her alarm blares, already gearing up for a day of building a home. After ten hours of painting, hammering and lifting, Audrey prepares to hand over the keys to the family that will live there. Audrey had never built a home before, and although the process has its challenging moments, she believes there’s no greater reward than giving a family a place to call home.
25 years ago, high school math teacher Jeannie Walla brought the Mexico house build trip to Campbell Hall. She first discovered the organization that leads the trip, Corazon, while her children who were Campbell Hall students were in search of service opportunities. At the time, Walla had no idea this trip would change her perspective on life. Walla believes the most remarkable aspect of the trip is the fact that students are physically working and making a difference with their hands, rather than donating money online and not being able to see the difference they are making.
“The impact we make is obvious and immediate,” Walla said. “There’s very little that we as a school community can do that makes such a big difference in someone’s life so directly. On this trip we don’t just donate money; you actually pick up a hammer and build a house and students are able to see the impact they make on families.”
Audrey found the trip to be an incredible learning experience. During her freshman year, she felt inspired to go after hearing seniors speak about how impactful the trip was for them. Since then, Audrey has been on the trip three times and has learned more about the impact the house building has on the communities each year, especially from physically going to the building site. Audrey hoped documenting the experience would inspire more students to participate.
“A very small portion of our grade actually goes on the Mexico House Build trip,” Audrey said. “So I started taking photos of this trip for the rest of our grades to see, to help motivate students to go on the trip next year and to realize the importance of the work that we are doing, because when students see photos of their friends it makes them more interested in going on the trip which could really get more involvement from other students.”
Audrey believes that there’s no greater learning experience than actually seeing the service she does directly affect people rather than learning about poverty from a textbook. She feels connected to the people she helps that are her age and live completely different lives than her.
“You see these families and you realize this is the reality that they face on a day-to-day basis,” Audrey said. “It’s not something that you just read in the news or you hear about; these are real people, just like us. Some of them are kids our age, and I think recognizing the severity of poverty today is so important.”
Sasha M. ‘25 has participated in the Mexico House Build trip for three years. She finds the trip to be a valuable learning experience about the global housing crisis because it provides hands-on involvement rather than just classroom learning. Although Sasha believes there are many memorable moments from the trip, she considers the moment they hand the family the keys to their new house to be the most impactful.
“I remember last year we talked to this guy named Jerry who we were building the house for,” Sasha said. “He would tell us about how much this means to him and his wife and how they had been waiting for this day for years. The fact that we’re a school in LA and we’re impacting these families in an amazing way forever and we get to be part of their story was really exciting and it’s a really special experience.”
This trip has changed Walla’s perspective and outlook on life as she can witness the help she is giving being received. She hopes that Campbell Hall student volunteers feel the same after the trip ends. Walla’s main goal is to make the students aware of the hardship that is happening all over the world.
“I hope every student understands that most people around the world live more like [the people] we see on the house-building trips, [not] the way we see in our own neighborhoods,” Walla said. “Millions of people around the world live without adequate water and sanitation. Even [people in our community], who only live a couple of hours from us, live that way. I think it’s very important for students to understand that we are really lucky to live the way that we do.”
