Some East Village high school freshmen had a tough lesson when they were forced to choose which sister school won a life-changing grant – while other finalists got nothing.
The young men in La Salle Academy’s honors religion class spent five months deliberating and debating before Thursday, when they chose to send a modest but life-changing $3,333 microgrant to Basic School No. 1152 in Paraguay to help install a solid waste disposal system.
The other finalists would get nothing, the students at the all-boys Catholic school were told.
“They really learned empathy through this process, and understanding of what others are going through,” their teacher, Brother Richard Galvin, told The Post.
The class was given the project back in December, with the money funded by the La Salle International Foundation.
The 17 young men in Galvin’s class were first told to whittle down numerous applications until they had three finalists — then they spent the next several months determining where the $3,333 would be the most impactful.
The two other finalists were La Salle sister schools in South Sudan and Kenya, both of which were looking to use the money to purchase musical instruments.
But for the boys at La Salle Academy, it was clear that the Basic School No. 1152 was in immediate need.
The municipality does not have a fresh water supply and the school discards trash in holes in the ground, which contaminates water following inclement weather and attracts wild animals to the campus.
“This grant is going to be bettering their environment — hands-on. I think most of the guys felt that and were moved by that,” Galvin said.
“It’s going to help with sanitary conditions, creating a more clean atmosphere,” he went on. “It’s going to help with providing a safe place to play, which they really don’t have at the moment. And it’ll be life-giving and contribute to their daily life in a positive way.”
Although the boys came to a consensus last week, the process was grueling.
The teenagers were racked with guilt at the idea that two schools would walk away empty-handed — a prospect that was especially daunting considering the students met with the schools virtually so they could each plead their cases, said Galvin.
They even tried to float the idea of splitting the money equally between the three, until they understood the decreased sum would do little to help each school achieve its goals.
Slowly, the La Salle Academy students became more confident in their decision-making and decided to focus on the good their choice would ultimately bring to the winner.
The boys fired off a handwritten letter on Thursday alerting Basic School No. 1152 that it had been awarded the prize, which would help establish sanitation systems and improve spaces for student recreation.
The exercise was eyeopening for the students attending the $13,200 per year school down to earth.
“This project helped teach my class about empathy and different life experiences of students our age across the world,” Aiden Aquino, a freshman from Ridgewood, said in a statement.
“It was a reality check and a reminder that we are all connected in some way. Community transcends borders and it is meaningful to help others in need.”
Fellow freshman Adrian Salcedo of Harlem added that the program “opened our eyes and widened our perspective.”
“We often take our lives in America for granted, especially clean water. I realize that Lasallian students across the world share many of our values, even if they face different challenges.”