Class of 2008, Pre-Law and Finance Major
Hometown: Highland Heights, Ohio

Senior pre-law and finance major Pete Dalpiaz, a member of SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) since 2004, had 30 minutes in December to decide that he wanted to go to Choluteca, Honduras, located in the southern half of the country – a place where unemployment, poverty and HIV/AIDS are common.

After spending five days at the end of February 2008 working at medical clinics in five different locations in the Choluteca area, helping 1,250 people get the help they need, he was sure he made the right decision.

As representatives of SIFE, Dalpiaz and Gregory Arburn, Ph.D., SIFE adviser, traveled to Honduras with a group of 17 people on a medical missions trip. “There is a great deal of mutual respect between Dr. Arburn and me, and we have relied on each other to accomplish great things for ourselves, SIFE and the University over the past four years,” Dalpiaz said.

Also during the past few years, the SIFE team has worked to provide vitamins and other medical supplies to be taken to Honduras. Normally, all of the available spots on the annual trip are filled by people from a local church and an affiliate church in Columbus. This year, however, two people canceled at the last minute, giving Dalpiaz and Arburn the opportunity to get involved.

“It was a fact-finding mission for Dr. A and me to find a way for SIFE to create an economic impact in Choluteca, Honduras,” said Dalpiaz. “There is a lot of unemployment, a lot of poverty…You can’t find it anywhere worse in the world. The children and the HIV/AIDS-infected community seem, to me, to be the most hopeless. Those are the two areas we [SIFE] are focusing on.”

Each day for five days, the group traveled from a hotel in Choluteca, which served as a home base, to nearby areas where they set up a medical clinic.

Pete Dalpiaz, above, volunteered at a medical clinic in Choluteca, Honduras.

Patients lined up in the morning to see a nurse or doctor, stop by the pharmacy to get medications the doctors prescribed and even pick out new clothing.
Dalpiaz worked in the pharmacy, counting and bagging pills, and filling out medication labels so the patients knew how to take them. Arburn worked in the pharmacy, as well as with registration. Because people in Honduras speak Spanish, five interpreters were on site from a school in the westernized northern half of Honduras.

One of the clinic locations stood out from the rest. The clinic was set up at Casa Hogar, a community being developed for people infected with HIV/AIDS, as well for their families and families of those who have died from the disease. In Honduras, HIV/AIDS is a growing epidemic, but because it is a poorly understood disease, those infected with it are outcast from their communities.

While at Casa Hogar, Dalpiaz and Arburn spoke with community organizers, missionaries from the United Kingdom. The planned community will consist of 200 homes, recreational facilities, medical treatment areas and rehabilitation areas. “I wasn’t sure what we were going to find,” said Dalpiaz. “But, really, we both got there and understood, as the morning went on, what the community was about. By mid-morning, Doc and I both knew this is where we would be able to make a difference.”

SIFE plans to focus its efforts on farming a plot of land, which will aid the community in two ways. It will provide employment opportunities, and it will help address nutritional deficiencies. Crops such as corn and melons, items that are easy to grow and support HIV/AIDS patients’ immune systems, will be planted.

To prepare for the project, SIFE is working with a local consultant who has experience with the agriculture industry in Honduras to put together budgets for things like drilling irrigation wells and buying seed. Although he graduates in May and will attend Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Dalpiaz plans to continue helping SIFE with the project and hopes to return to the area within the year.

“I would encourage people, especially students, to find a way to participate in a trip like this,” Dalpiaz noted. “It does wonders for the perspective that you have on everything in life. If someone would have offered us plane tickets back home that first day, we may have taken them. But we were both able to gain a lot out of the experience and grow from it – not only for SIFE but also on a personal level.”

Through his involvement with SIFE, Dalpiaz became a better leader and a better team member, and he gained skills and professional experience. His involvement in the organization as a student culminated with his life-changing trip to Honduras.

While a student at UF, Dalpiaz also was involved with soccer, residence life and served as the College of Business representative to the Board of Governors and Alumni Association during his junior and senior years.