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Students at St. John's Episcopal School in Olney used the country of Belize as a backdrop for lessons on climate change as they completed a service project during a recent nine-day trip.

The group of 14 seventh- and eighth-graders and three teachers took the trip arranged by World Leadership School, an organization that unites young people around the world's most pressing problems and empowers them to become leaders.

"The idea is to connect with a school in a developing nation before the trip and work on a service project that would benefit them," teacher Alecia Berman-Dry said. "There are also different curriculums to study; in our case, it was climate change."

Berman-Dry said Belize was the perfect setting for that lesson. Although tiny in size, its land features include mountains, rivers, a savannah and coral reefs. The tropical country is located on the eastern coastline of Central America, with Guatemala to the west and south and Mexico to the north. It is slightly smaller in area than Massachusetts.

The trip tied in with a lesson that St. John's students learn in seventh grade when they study the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.

"The students all have that background knowledge, so we were constantly comparing what we learned in Belize to what we already knew," she said.

The students applied for the program in November and were accepted based on academic standing and their demonstrated interest in climate change.

As for what to choose as a service project, the incentive came when students learned that the telephone company in Belize offers free Internet service to schools that have at least five laptop computers. So St. John's students raised money to purchase five for a small school in La Democracia, Belize District.

The students were asked to raise $150 each and most did so by doing chores and odd jobs for family members and friends.

Collette Pujol, 14, said she cleaned the house and did filing and other paperwork for her mother.

"I did a dog-sitting, but when I realized I was still $50 short, I did a lot of yard work for my neighbors," said Robbie Gibbs, 14.

In addition, the students participated in several group fundraisers such as a night at Cheeburger Cheeburger and an out-of-uniform day where students could pay to dress in casual attire.

Because of the exchange rate, the group was able to deliver the laptops, sporting equipment, school supplies and a cash donation of $1,000, which will enable the school to build a computer lab and a kitchen.

"In their currency, that was actually $2,000 and that money goes very far there," Berman-Dry said.

Berman-Dry said the school is in a very poor, rural area, and most of the students had never seen a computer.

"It was amazing how our students showed them how to use them, and within a half-hour, the kids jumped right in," she said.

Courtney Oliver, 13, said she would never forget the students' faces when they first saw the computers.

"The teacher thanked us and said she was very grateful and hoped to repay us someday," she said.  "I thought she already had repaid us by giving us this wonderful experience."

Pujol agreed that she liked visiting the Maya ruins, but also enjoyed bonding with her classmates and seeing how other children live.

"They don't have a lot, but they are still happy because they don't focus on material things," she said. 

St. John's Headmaster John Zurn said being in the Washington, D.C., area, where there are people of many different backgrounds, makes it important to engage the students in learning about different cultures.

"This was an incredible opportunity on so many levels, including leadership, service, education," he said. "So many places don't have the resources or common things that we do. It also gave the students the opportunity to look at environmental problems and discuss ways to solve them. Belize has some of the environmental problems that I think we will face in the future, and I think our kids will be the ones who are going to need to solve them."