Taking a year off between high school and college isn’t unheard of. But doing it between the first and second year of college probably isn’t as common, and not for the reason that Kelsey Waidelich did.

Waidelich, now a sophomore at Bluffton University, left school last academic year for a six-month service trip to Guatemala.

The Pettisville (Ohio) High School graduate decided to take the time off after talking to her cousin, Alysa (Sauder) Short, a 2002 Bluffton alumna. At that point, Waidelich said, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to do mission work or go to college. Her cousin convinced her to volunteer at El Shaddai, a school in Chiquimulilla, Guatemala, where Short has taught English and Pettisville-area Mennonite churches have provided support. Among them is the church that Waidelich attends, West Clinton Mennonite.

Having those ties to the school also helped her make the decision to leave the U.S., she noted.

Not alone in planning the trip, Waidelich said she received “lots of love and support”—and help—from her family and church. Her father, for instance, contacted YES!, a nonprofit organization that trains adults, primarily ages 18-35, for missions. She received two weeks of training from the group in Pennsylvania.

A fan of Spanish culture, Waidelich was eager to get to know Guatemala and the students she would be working with there. Arriving last winter, she helped teach English to students ages 4-18, assisting them with pronunciations and even running the classes for a week while the teacher was gone. She stayed with the director of El Shaddai and was also able to see more of the country during her stay.

She also enjoyed playing soccer with her students, said Waidelich, a Bluffton soccer player who is majoring in early childhood education and to be an intervention specialist. Soccer in Guatemala was very different than the soccer played here, she said, explaining, for one thing, that the Guatemalan version was more aggressive.

When it was time for her to leave, she received numerous notes and gifts from her students, many of whom asked if she would be coming back. “Guatemala had a different vibe,” she added, citing “a very laid-back atmosphere” but also “a very welcoming and warm hospitality everywhere I went.”

The experience reinforced Waidelich’s belief that she wants to be a teacher. Even before coming to Bluffton, she knew the classroom was in her future—when she was in high school, she helped Pettisville teachers with kindergarteners, which piqued her interest in the career. “I loved the kids,” she recalled.

She is glad to be back at Bluffton and playing soccer with new and old friends. She does, however, admit that she misses the students, the fun and the fresh fruit of Guatemala. Waidelich is sponsoring a child there who will be starting preschool in January, and she plans to return at some point, she said, possibly even starting her own mission trip with young adults through her church.