With the collaboration and financial support from the Foundation of Hospice St. Joseph and the Dean’s office of the Lynch School of Education, we planned and organized a 5-week trip to Haiti to deliver an English curriculum to elementary and middle school students in Haiti. Hospice Saint Joseph is a Christian community in Port au Prince, Haiti, under the auspices of the Catholic Diocese of Norwich, CT. Hospice Saint Joseph operates three main programs that serve the residents of the Christ Roi section of Port Au Prince. There is a health care clinic staffed by Haitian doctors, a hospitality program that provides accommodations for outreach and immersion groups from the US and other countries as well as Haitians from the provinces, and an education program that provides scholarships and educational assistance to the local students.

         The director of the Education Sponsorship Program and the HSJ Board of directors became concerned about some of the scholarship students who experience difficulty with their schoolwork due to the hardships they face on a daily basis. There are currently over 150 elementary and high school students in the program.  Since the Executive Director of Hospice St Joseph, Mr. Joel Theodat, and the chair of the Board of Directors Program Committee, Mary Lou Bozza both are graduates of Boston College, Hospice Saint Joseph initiated a partnership with ISPRC in the Lynch School of Education to provide tutors.

      The vision and mission is Youn Ede Lot: Helping Each Other. The mission of the Hospice Saint Joseph community is to work side by side with our Haitian sisters and brothers for better opportunities for the people of the Christ Roi neighborhood. For the summer program, this means that students from Boston College and other regional universities will offer their skills and talents as student educators to the children in Haiti who need help in learning English language and other academic skills.