Noah Gasch recently made his third trip to the land of his birth, and he earned college credits in the process.

Gasch, a 2013 Seneca Valley graduate, was adopted as an infant from Guatemala by Rodney Gasch and Laurie Kirsch of Forward Township. He is now a broadcast communications major at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

When Rodney Gasch, who has long been involved with the Latin American Children's Fund, asked his son to travel to Guatemala to take photographs for the fund's website and the website of the Seeds of Help Foundation, he jumped at the chance.

But in addition to taking the photos that would replace the outdated ones on the websites, Noah Gasch had the idea to document the culture, lives and people of Guatemala as well.

His adviser at Pitt encouraged the project, and arranged for Gasch's documentary to serve as a “directed study” project for college credits.

“It was an opportunity that wasn't planned and came out of nowhere,” Gasch said.

Gasch made the trip in the summer to Guatemala, which he still considers his homeland.

“I'm happy when I get to travel, and when I go back home and help,” he said.

Gasch said his three trips to Guatemala remind him every day that he is lucky to live in America, where all his needs are met.

“I could have turned out like a lot of those kids,” Gasch said of the poverty he has seen in his native country. “Not that that's a bad thing, just more struggles.”

He said his most recent trip was to Cumbre, a mountaintop farming village. When he began photographing and filming the children there, he made a surprising discovery.

“Not many have seen their own reflection or what they look like from different angles,” Gasch said. “They were all hesitant and scared at first, but after a while they loved the camera and tried to find themselves in the crowd (shots).”

The documentary, which is still in production, will also be uploaded onto the Latin American Children's Fund and Seeds of Hope websites.

“The main purpose is to bring awareness and show what those two organizations are doing,” Gasch said.

Rodney Gasch said his son, though very well-adjusted, never looked like any of his friends or neighbors here.

“It was really exciting to see him go to an area where he looks like everyone else,” the elder Gasch said. “It's great that he took 10 days out of his summer vacation to go help others and have an impact on people from his birth country.”

Gasch said he never tried to hide or gloss over the fact that his sons — Noah's older brother was adopted from El Salvador — were born in Central America in a very different culture.

“It was important that they understand where they came from and have an appreciation of the culture,” Rodney Gasch said, “and to be proud of their homeland.”

Noah Gasch said he and his brother had two birthday celebrations, one to commemorate the day they were adopted and one on their actual birthdays.

“They've done a great job at never hiding who I am and instilling a lot of Guatemalan pride in me,” he said.

While Noah is hard at work on the documentary and photos, he will never forget his time in his native land spent with the people of his heritage.

“If you have the means to give back a little and to provide help in any way you can to the Latin American Children's Fund and Seeds of Hope, as well as Central America, that's always good with me,” he said.

More information on the all-volunteer Latin American Children's Fund is available at

www.lacfund.org.