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Mexico Shoulder to Shoulder
 Shoulder to Shoulder is a unique three-site collaboration linking Lasell College to two locations in Mexico. This international service-learning experience combines a fall semester course with two weeks of manual labor, community service, reflective intellectual work, and recreation in Mexico each January. Our stay allows for structured and unstructured encounters with business owners, farm workers, university students, city officials, and home stay sponsors in Orizaba and Coatepec, two cities in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. Our partners in Mexico are the Orizaba Language Center and the owners of communally held land of a rural Mexican ejido, Campo Viejo, in Coatepec.
Mission
Mexico Shoulder to Shoulder promotes mutual understanding between Mexico and the United States through community service and cross-cultural teamwork. By living and working with local experts, we learn about another culture and ourselves. The goal of service-learning in Veracruz is not to change Mexico, but to learn from Mexicans about Mexico and about the impact of the United States on our neighbors.
The program is designed to meet the following educational objectives:
1) Interdisciplinary problem-solving and team-based community service, with an emphasis on cultural sensitivity and leadership development in service situations
2) Critical thought and discussion provoked by direct exposure to issues of social justice, global economics, environment, and the impact of U.S. policy on its neighbors
3) Exchange of cultural knowledge about U.S. and Mexico, including social structure and lifestyle in both urban and rural areas of Mexico
4) Spanish language learning
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