WB_111518

4 | November 15, 2018 | The wilmette beacon news
wilmettebeacon.com
Wilmette student learns about world, self by volunteering
Hilary Anderson
Freelance Reporter
Join us Monday
Sophie Chevalier wanted
to make a difference.
The Wilmette resident
was only a high school
junior at the time in 2015.
Chevalier knew there was
more than what she found
in suburbia. She left family
and friends and the
conveniences of living on
the North Shore and traveled
to Panama in Central
America for a summer service
project.
Chevalier found the experience
so fulfilling it became
the first of three such
trips to Latin America.
“I searched various opportunities
and found a
genuine program, Amigos
de las Americas, a nongovernmental
organization
that has been working at
empowering youth since
1965,” Chevalier said.
All she had to do was
convince her parents.
“After attending several
informational meetings
with our daughter about
Amigos de las Americas,
we felt confident about
through Friday
Froggys
French Cafe
Monthly Special for November
Available for Lunch $15 or
Dinner $17 per person BEFORE 6pm
CHOICE OF Soup (3) or Salad
ENTREE CHOICE OF...
Roasted Breast of Chicken Florentine
(spinach and cheese)
or
Beef Bourguignon
or
Grilled Atlantic Salmon
your choice prepared either Provence or Beurre Blanc
All main courses are served with three vegetables and a starch
FOR RESERVATIONS CALL 847.433.7080
WWW.FROGGYSRESTAURANT.COM
306 GREEN BAY ROAD, HIGHWOOD
Not available for parties of 6 or more. Monthly Specials not valid on Holidays.
Make Early Reservations for Christmas Eve & New Year’s Eve
the program and gave our
permission for Sophie to
spend six weeks in a remote
community in Latin
America,” said Tanja Chevalier,
Sophie’s mother.
The organization is
considered a mini-Peace
Corps for young people
whose vision is a world
where each young person
becomes a lifelong catalyst
for social change according
to Tanja Chevalier.
“There were five months
of training beforehand
and fundraising to finance
community projects,” Sophie
Chevalier said. “I
sold pizza coupons, flowers,
had a recycle electronics
drive and sent letters to
family and friends asking
for donations.”
Following her junior
year at New Trier, Chevalier
traveled to a small
community in the Azuero
Peninsula of Panama. She
left her cell phone home.
“I lived with my host
grandmother (abuela) in
a modest house where
the only concrete was the
kitchen floor,” she said.
“There was a wood cook
stove. The shower was a
hose and the outhouse was
in the back of the house.
Some of the neighbors had
a refrigerator they shared
with each other.”
Chevalier oversaw activities
with the local
children and worked with
her Amigos partner from
Seattle on community initiatives
— renovating the
park and community center.
The experience was so
fulfilling that Chevalier
went to Nicaragua following
her New Trier graduation
in 2016.
“I was not sure what I
wanted to do in life or major
in college so I took a
gap year and deferred my
freshman year,” she said.
“I went to Nicaragua with
Amigos as a gap year participant
and interned with
their national environmental
organization, Fundacion
Amerigos Del Rio
San Juan-Fundar. I lived
with another incredible
host family and traveled to
many parts of Nicaragua.”
Then last June, Chevalier
returned to Amigos for
10 weeks.
“This time I was a supervisor
leading the summer
program I originally
Wilmette’s Sophie Chevalier, now a student at the
University of the British Columbia, enjoys mangoes
during a June trip to Panama. Photo submitted
participated in,” she said.
“At the last minute, our
64-participant group was
redirected from Nicaragua
where social unrest
rendered the country unsafe.
We went to Panama
instead. Amigos’ presence
all over Latin America
made the move almost
seamless for us.”
Chevalier says she made
some of her most meaningful
relationships there.
“As a result of these
experiences, I discovered
that even at a young age
it is possible to make impactful
contributions to
our world,” she said.
Chevalier’s earliest life
experiences also helped
her enjoy and value what
she learned from the culture
and many people she
met and lived with in Latin
America.
“I returned home with a
more open mind about the
people and what was important
to them,” Chevalier
said. “I learned about
the danger of stereotypes.
They are not necessarily
wrong stories about a different
culture, rather incomplete
ones.”
Chevalier was born in
Paris, France and lived in a
small town outside the city
until she was about five
years old.
“Some of my earliest
memories are of living
there,” she said. “When I
came to the United States
to live, it was culture
shock and not just whether
fork tines should be faced
up or down when setting
the table.”
She listed some differences.
“At mealtime, adults are
served first,” Chevalier
said. “Here it is children
first. Children abroad seem
to be more respectful.
Sports teams are separate
from schools. Many people
outside the U.S. tend to
view Americans as having
a “consumptive” attitude.
People must have more
things — more clothes,
more everything. People
stand in long lines to get
the latest iPhone when
they already have a good
or newer model.”
Chevalier and her family
lived in Chicago before
moving to the North
Shore.
She attended Chicago’s
French School when they
first arrived. By third
Please see student, 8