The following story was published by the Illinois Times on Aug. 3, 2026.

Ryan Bye: Earlier this summer, I stood on the side of a hill in Guatemala watching a University of Illinois Springfield student mix concrete by hand for the first time in her life. Getting there meant meeting on campus at 2 a.m., driving to St. Louis Lambert International Airport, and traveling for more than 12 hours, but by then none of that mattered. She was roasting in the sun, exhausted and grinning ear to ear. This wasn’t a class. Nobody was earning credit or a grade. She was there because she wanted to be, and somewhere between the first wheelbarrow of gravel and the last coat of paint, I watched her stop thinking of it as a trip and start thinking of it as her purpose.

That is the moment I hope for every year.

I recently traveled with a group of UIS students, staff, and alumni to Antigua, Guatemala, on our co-curricular service experience. The trip was made possible in part by the generosity of donors who help make these experiences affordable for UIS students. We partnered with ImaginingGuatemala to build a home for a family in Pastores. It was the second house UIS helped build through this partnership, and the 266th the organization has completed overall. Over four days, our group poured concrete, hung doors, laid tile and wired the house for electricity. We turned a dirt-floor structure into a home with running water and a door that locks.

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