Philippines — 2006

GRO's first unofficial trip was to the Philippines during the spring of 2006. The delegation was comprised of three students from RIT in addition to Alim Chandani, the current Executive Director of GRO. The group worked together to give workshops to young deaf students at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde (CSB) in Manila, Philippines.

The focus of the workshops was on life transition skills. The first aspect of the workshops focused on the transition from high school to a college environment, and the second aspect focused on the transition after college to the working environment. The American delegates shared their own transition experiences with the Filipino students to help them better identify with the process. These workshops showed what the Filipino students needed most was reinforcement from Deaf role models in order to truly believe in themselves. From this unofficial trip, Alim drew inspiration to make GRO a reality.

Read more about this trip through Pen-International's website: Pen-International on GRO - Philippines 2006