We recently carried out an interview with Deneysis Labrada, an OYE volunteer from American University who wrote a research paper on OYE and the role of youth empowerment in promoting education.Q: What is your name and age, and where are you from?
A: My name is Deneysis Labrada. I am 20 years-old. I am from Florida.
Q: What is your current course of study?
A: I am currently studying international relations with a focus on Latin America and Spanish.
Q: What inspired you to carry out research on OYE?
A: I was taking an introduction to international relations research at American University. I thought it would be interesting to incorporate my alternative spring break trip in Honduras, which had an educational development focus, rather than doing research on something that had already been studied.
Q: What research question were you trying to address?
A: How does participation in OYE influence the student’s decision to continue with their education?
Q: How did you go about doing this?
A: I conducted a survey in which 79 out of the 91 scholars got back to me. I also interviewed 6 participants and 2 staff. When I had that information, I performed a statistical analysis and incorporated the interviews to obtain my findings.
Q: What were your principal findings?
A: I found that participation in OYE has a positive relationship with youth empowerment, which has an impact on youth’s decision to continue with their education. Participation not only leads to self-empowerment, but also a decision to continue with education. There was a statistically significant, positive correlation between participation in OYE and the students’ decision to continue studying.
Q: What are your greatest memories from your time at OYE?
A: Getting to meet everyone who works at OYE, understanding their stories, and being able to continue that communication.
Q: What are you currently working on?
A: Right now I am in Costa Rica with Youth Challenge International working on several development projects. The work involves infrastructure, English classes, computer classes, life skills, and other development on the social and infrastructural levels. We are also implementing a tourism and recycling plan that will go on through our continued development approach.
Q: When are you coming back to Honduras?
A: Hopefully next spring or summer!
Q: Do you have anything you’d like to share with the OYE scholars?
A: I miss them and I can’t wait to go back. I wish I was there with you guys.
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