The mission group embarked on the journey a day after the break began in March and headed toward Nuevo Laredo, which translates to New Laredo in English. The minute the van crossed the Rio Grande River from the United States into Mexico, the students soon understood that the lives they led were drastically different from their border neighbors to the south.

"The culture is so unbelievably different than over here," said sophomore Shannon Schoeller. "They can't afford a percentage of what we have, and many of them just struggle to survive. Yet, they are still happy and are able to find joy in different places, like serving in the church and learning about Christ."

Every morning from 8 a.m. to noon, the mission group worked at Mount Zion, a site where they helped with construction, educating pre-school children, cooking and assisting in a medical clinic. Since Mount Zion is located in a colonia, an impoverished neighborhood where residents make their houses out of scraps of trash and rubbish, the group members remained busy because community members took such advantage of these services.

Bookstore assistant manager Dianne Wilkey, another member of the mission group, said, "Everything is saved for some possible future use, such as containers and scraps of wood. Scrap metal seems to make up the roofs, along with most dogs. It's really strange to be walking down the street and when you look to the right or left there is rarely a dog, but look up and there is a whole motley crew."

From about 1 p.m. through dinnertime, the group participated in activities that educated them on Mexican culture. They toured such places as the average Mexican home, the Texas Border Patrol, and a large orphanage ran by one woman.

The trip was of immense benefit to those who went, for it taught them much about one another and the faith of the Mexican people. They found that it is possible to live a life of struggle, yet remain deeply rooted in faith.

Scholler said, "I learned that even through language and culture barriers, people can still work together to serve a common purpose. Seeing how different we were only made us realize how similar we were as well. Through their example, the people of Mexico showed us how to be joyous and faithful when we happen to be in the midst of incredible odds and trials."

Snodgrass to study in Ireland

Jessica Snodgrass, a junior from Newport, will travel to Europe in September to participate in an exchange program sending American students to Ireland and bringing Irish students to the United States.

Snodgrass will study at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, until July 2002. She plans to take classes in biology and English to count towards her majors. Snodgrass hopes to pursue a career in medicine in the future.

Snodgrass, excited about the exchange program, said, "I want to be able to meet and learn from different kinds of people. I want to travel all over the U.K. and see all of the places I have heard so much about in my classes [at Lyon]. I am excited about being able to study different subjects from an Irish perspective."

The exchange program, the Northern Ireland Business Initiative, invites students from Presbyterian colleges and universities to apply for exchange.

Snodgrass is not the first student to participate in the program; Kathleen Cater, a 2001 Lyon graduate, spent time studying in Ireland, and Lois Gordon came to Lyon through the exchange program.

Dr. Wray promoted

Bashari, research intern in Philadelphia

Edlira Bashari, a sophomore pre-med major at Lyon College, is serving as a research intern at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia this summer.

She is working under the sponsorship of Nobel Prize winner Dr. Alan McDiarmid and Dr. Sanjeev Manohar, assistant professor of chemistry at Lyon. They are developing plastics that conduct electricity. Bashari, a 2000 graduate of Cotter High School, is the daughter of Kristaq and Liljana Bashari of Gassville, formerly of Tiana, Albania.

Upward Bound Day at Lyon

Upward Bound programs from Harding University in Searcy and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro joined Lyon's Upward Bound Math-Science program and APPLE Project for an Upward Bound Day at Lyon on Thursday, June 21. In the above photo, members of a Lyon Upward Bound Math-Science team watch anxiously as more weight is added to their toothpick bridge. Several teams watch anxiously as more weight is added to their toothpick bridge. Several teams from all three schools constructed toothpick bridges and then tested their strength during the contest by placing weight on the bridge until it collapsed. A formula which included the weight the bridge held and the weight of the bridge itself was then used to determine the bridge's strength. In the bottom photo, Casey Huffman of Lyon's APPLE Project makes a move in a game of checkers against Harding's Bobby Allen. Students from all three schools also competed in a math contest, science contest, spelling bee, quiz bowl competition and free throw contest.