2025 MSU x PathLight Belize Service Learning

Our final day of teaching (Day 6) began at the Pathlight BC Center, with a sense of closure in the air. Sanaye would leave midday, and the rest of us the next day. The morning’s plan: reprise the same introductory micro:bit lesson that we taught in Orange Walk on Day 2. Like their Orange Walk peers, these students had little to no programming experience. Most were encountering physical computing and programming concepts for the first time, so we followed the same hands-on, curiosity-driven approach that had worked so well earlier in the week. While Sanya and Sanaye usually led the micro:bit lessons, Sanaye was leaving mid-session, so Joshua and Benjamin stepped in to fill her shoes. By now, everyone knew the lesson plan by heart, which freed them to focus on encouraging deeper exploration. As before, the students dove in quickly—scrolling f...

Our Stay at the Golden Bay Belize Hotel After our Thursday afternoon session at Pathlight Belize City, we checked into the Golden Bay Belize Hotel, our home for the final two nights of the trip. A well-known landmark on the edge of downtown, Golden Bay is known for its proximity to both the ocean and the city, its comfortable rooms and friendly service, and its convenient location above a popular shopping center. That first evening, we enjoyed dinner together at the hotel's rooftop restaurant, the Vino Tinto Restaurant Bar & Grill. We selected an inside table for dinner, after which we checked out the adjoining terrace, where we admired a sweeping view of Belize City at night and posed for a group photo. We ate breakfast on the terrace the next morning. With a daytime version of the same view, fresh-squeezed juices...

Bringing Power On! to Life (on Belize Time 😉) We were excited for our final lesson of Day 5—a session unlike anything we had done before. Last year, we had donated 30 copies of Power On! , a graphic novel by Jean J. Ryoo and Jane Margolis (MIT Press, 2022), to Pathlight Belize. The book follows four teenage friends from diverse backgrounds as they navigate the world of computing. Along the way, they grapple with who gets access to computing, how bias shows up in technology, and why it’s critical for everyone to understand the power—and responsibility—of computing today. We hoped the book could spark reflection about equity in tech and inspire students to think broadly about both who belongs in computing and the role computing might play in their future. For this session, we asked a group of Pathlight students to read and discuss the first two chapters ahead of our visit. Th...

Fresh off our day of rest and adventure at Jaguar Creek, we returned to teaching on Thursday (Day 5) with a renewed sense of energy. This time, we traveled to Belize City (BC) to meet with a group of about 20 high school students from St. John’s College at the Pathlight BC Center, near the center of downtown, where early-morning vendors set up fruit stalls and the warm scent of fresh fry jacks drifts down the street. These students weren’t new to coding—they had done programming before—but this was their first time working with Micro:bits, and they dove in headfirst. After a brief introduction to the Micro:bit’s features and functionality, they launched into an expanded Environmental Investigation Challenge, which was the most exciting and hands-on activity that we did. Working in pairs, the students gathered real-world ...

After the excitement and energy of our teaching sessions in Orange Walk, Day 4 (Wednesday) was a much-needed chance to pause, breathe, and take in the natural beauty of Belize. We traveled south to Jaguar Creek , an eco-lodge tucked deep in the Maya Mountains, for a day off that blended adventure, reflection, and preparation for the rest of the week. From the moment we arrived, Jaguar Creek offered a completely different rhythm—lush greenery, the sound of rushing water, and a stillness that’s hard to find in everyday life. We kicked off the morning with a hike through the rainforest, winding along dirt trails beneath thick canopies. Surrounded by towering cohune palms and the calls of tropical birds, it felt both grounding and exhilarating to be so immersed in nature. The highlight for many of us was tubing in the creek—floating in clear, cool water in the heart of the Belizean jungle...

After our busy Monday and a full morning teaching robotics at Pathlight in Orange Walk, our Pathlight hosts had arranged an excursion to Orchid Bay, a peaceful waterfront community on the northern coast of Belize. The drive from Orange Walk took about an hour and a half, which turned out to be just long enough for Sanaye, Sanya, and Joshua to catch up on some much-needed sleep. Orchid Bay is known for its mix of vacation villas and private residences, with shady coconut palms, calm turquoise waters, and a laid-back vibe. The area has a history as a fishing and trading spot for coastal communities. Today, it’s a quiet getaway popular with both visitors and Belizeans. By the time we rolled in, the afternoon sun was warm and inviting, and the saltwater pool sparkled. Sanaye and Sanya wasted no time slipping into the pool to cool off. Laura attempted to snorkel off the...