For my signature project I traveled to Puerto Rico with other Ohio State students through Buck-i-SERV in May 2023. We were connected to local communities through the organization Community Collaborations International, which planned our week of service in places around the island such as San Juan, Luquillo, Carolina, El Yunque National Forest, and Juncos. We participated in a variety of service types such as home construction, wilderness preservation, wildlife restoration, and volunteering with youth.
As Puerto Rico is unlike any other place I’ve ever visited, perhaps the most notable change that took place over this trip was my view of the world. In the many places that we traveled to around the island I was able to experience firsthand what life was like in a U.S territory (and one with a likelihood of becoming a state at some point in the future). I discovered that although there are built-up areas of Puerto Rico that are highly developed, many Puerto Ricans face issues with safety and crime, recovering from natural disasters, and even day to day challenges with car travel and lack of public transportation, and Puerto Rico faces infrastructure challenges.
I also learned many new things about myself and the group of Buck-I-SERV volunteers I was on service with. First, I found that service can bring together very diverse groups of people like few other activities can. Coming together to be a part of a mission bigger than any one of us gave us all purpose that motivated us to put in our full effort throughout the entire week. I also gained a personal understanding that I most enjoy the types of service where I could directly see the difference I was making.
My understanding of life in Puerto Rico (and perhaps other U.S territories) came mostly from conversations and interactions with locals who have spent time living in Puerto Rico for at least the last few years. On Monday and Tuesday of my trip, I worked on house reconstruction efforts from hurricane Maria together with the organization SBP. Workers from SBP often had lived in Puerto Rico for a little while and helped me gain insight into the lives of the homeowners we were serving. One fact they told me that I remember well is that many homes, such as the one we worked at on Monday, had barred windows to stop crime gangs from causing damage to the home by throwing large objects through these windows.
I also learned a lot from Leo, the main organizer for our group’s week of service, who knew lots about Puerto Rico and even had political ambitions to make a difference in Puerto Rico’s challenges. On one bus ride during the week Leo pointed out the absurd amount of traffic on the roadways and how many cars there are across the island. Leo said this was due to no one taking into account incorporating other methods of transportation, including public services.
The way I bonded with my fellow Ohio State students on this trip, over the course of only a single week, is what taught me about the unique nature of service. Even though there were 19 participants on this trip, we each got to spend time getting to know one another and forming new friendships. I saw this when, after arriving back to campus and it being time to say our goodbyes, many people expressed their sadness at having to leave the group to travel back home. I felt this sadness as well, and still think it’s truly amazing considering I knew nobody in the group going in. Serving others in Puerto Rico helped us grow together because we spent almost all day with one another, were excited to be helping others, and got to form new connections with people outside the school group, such as the service leaders throughout the week or children at the Boys and Girls Club.
The last thing I learned about myself was how much more I enjoyed the days of service where I knew without a doubt that I was making a difference. One day I spent painting a section of a home that I felt, after devoting hours of work, didn’t ultimately look that good. But on the very next day, after by chance being assigned a painting job yet again, I enjoyed my work thoroughly because this time it was an assignment I felt I could competently do and make it look good. I also felt the duration of service factored in here, as I got better satisfaction from spending all day at one service site as opposed to only 1-2 hours like we did at a tree nursery in San Juan on Thursday. We were also going to spend only one hour at a Boys and Girls Club that day, but after deciding to stay an extra hour it became immediately clear how helpful it was to have that extra time to bond with the kids there.
Never having been outside the 50 states I now have a better understanding of problems faced by people in other areas of the world. This makes me more informed on global issues and a better global citizen. Traveling to Puerto Rico also gave me experience in appreciating new cultures as I talked with local Puerto Ricans, explored several major cities on the island, tried new foods, and read and spoke Spanish throughout the trip.
The discoveries I made about myself and my enjoyment of service gives me ideas for how to incorporate serving others into my professional life because, although I have not hardly begun to narrow down career paths for myself out of college, I now know I would expect to find a closer, more energized group of coworkers at an organization that does work that gives back to the community or serves others in some way. I am now confident that this work would also keep me more motivated because of the effects I noticed on my work ethic when I knew what kind of a difference I was making for other people.