The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Dan Nolan Mariah Buckley '07

When Mariah Buckley, a senior from Scarborough, Maine, entered high school, she decided she wanted to leave Maine for the big city as a dance major. Buckley was set in her ways until she met one Spanish teacher that changed the course of her life. This teacher encouraged Buckley to partake in a school trip to Costa Rica, and the experience completely changed her priorities. With a little guidance from her teacher, Buckley chose Colby and quickly immersed herself in a Latin American Studies and Spanish double major. Since her first year, Buckley has dedicated herself toward helping those in need-both abroad and here in Maine.

During the January term of her sophomore year, Buckley went back to Costa Rica where she worked in an orphanage in Esparza. She helped out where she was needed teaching art classes and caring for the children. She described the experience as one that completely changed her perspective on everything. "These kids have nothing, but they are still amazing" Buckley said. "They all wanted me to adopt them, and I had to tell them that I just couldn't. It really broke my heart when I had to say goodbye."

Her time at the orphanage inspired her to spend a semester abroad in Argentina working for an organization called "Familiares." Between 1976 and 1983, a military dictatorship took hold of Argentina, and during this time any nonconformists were arrested by the government and vanished without a trace. They call these victims "Desaparecidos," or "The Disappeared." Buckley worked on these cases of the Desaparecidos, recording testimonies from the victims' family members to find out what happened the day of the arrest. "These families' stories were so incredibly terrible. I tried to put myself in their shoes and think about if my mother or father just vanished one day out of the blue. It made me realize just how lucky I am," she said.

Buckley has traveled abroad to help those in need, but she never lost sight of the needs of the local Waterville community. As a first-year, she got involved in the Colby South End Coalition in its days of infancy. Since then, her efforts have shaped the Coalition into the strong program it is today. The Coalition focuses on helping the South End of Waterville, a struggling community that faces a variety of issues ranging from transient housing to teen pregnancy. In Buckley's sophomore year, the Coalition received a grant from the Maine Compass Compact, and the group set out to make a difference for Waterville. She helped organize a week long series of events including panels and ice cream socials to help the South End and to strengthen the bond between Colby students and the Waterville community.

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