Artifact #1: Rafiki Bracelet
The summer before my senior year, my club Service Projects Abroad was set to travel on a service trip to Nicaragua. We traveled with ME to WE and while there discussed pillars of sustainability and the impact of service beyond what we were directly doing. I learned that service is not as much about the tangibles given, but showing others that what you are doing is so important that people would come from all over the world to ensure its existence, whether that be equality, education, or something as simple as clean water and healthcare. I had never thought about service in that way before and was amazed at the impact those ideas had on my outlook. The Rafiki bracelets represent the pillars of sustainability and profits from their purchase go back into ME to WE to continue their mission of sustainability. This trip renewed my love for service and led to me applying to the humanitarian engineering program.
Artifact #2: OWL program
I signed up for the owl program because I wanted to move in early and I thought it would help my chances at becoming an OA for the semester. While both of those goals were accomplished, I learned a lot more about myself in the program than I expected to. During the OWL “party” event I grabbed one of my fellow OWLS and we decided to fully engage in the childish activities before us, peaking as we found the face painting station. A little overexcited and over tired, I concocted a plan to have an owl painted over my face. Not only did I get my friend on board, we immediately convinced those around us to join us in the spirit of the OWL program. Through this little idea of complete goofiness, I found myself to be more outgoing and able to relax around others than I had previously thought. It greatly impacted my confidence in making friends beyond the program and my confidence now as I meet new people. Please enjoy the picture below as I spent 20 minutes hunting down the owl mascot for this glorious image.