An article published in the Hoffman Tribune on January 10 was reprinted in the Alexandria Echo Press on Friday, February 1, 2008. The article featured Peruvian exchange students working at Andes Tower Hills in Kensington.
The Echo Press also placed the article on their website which allows for comments from readers. I found it interesting to read comments from both sides of the issue of employing students from outside the United States. Even more interesting was the fact that nobody contacted the Hoffman Tribune when the original article was published. I realize the Echo Press has a much wider circulation and audience, however, some of the negative comments were from a reader living in Kensington.
It was encouraging to see people interested in the article and situation out at Andes. Some of the comments praised the students and Andes for realizing that travel and work experience in another country is a life-changing event; one that shapes how people broaden their horizons and open their ideas about the world we live in. Other negative comments reflected on the labor lost in the community. What I feel the person writing those comments doesn’t realize is, regardless of the “lost labor,” the wages earned by the Peruvian students is flushed back into the local economy. While living in the area, the students need to pay for housing, food, entertainment, and supplies. The wages earned are not enough to save large amounts of money to take back to Peru at the end of their visit.
At times, it’s easy to live locally and focus too much on our state, region, city, and town. The trick is to be able to push away from the influences that limit our views – to step back and look at difficult situations, like local employment, from another perspective. I hope my article allowed readers to reflect on their own perspective, and learn from others’ perspectives in the process.
1 Comment
February 4, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Well said and written. It is nice to see a bit of point and counterpoint that is truly relative to topics that reach beyond normal “local” thinking. It can only help improve our rural communities that are really the heart of Minnesota.
Keep up the good work!