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Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.
I volunteered at the Hope for Orphans Children’s home in Ghana through the Akumanyi Foundation. For two weeks, students from Ohio State lived, ate, worked, and played with children in the orphanage and adjacent school. In addition, we were able to learn about Ghanaian culture, education systems, and politics through educational excursions and daily interaction with staff on site.
- What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.
During this trip, I was confronted with feelings of guilt about the nature of volunteer work abroad and with children. To be totally immersed in an experience means I got as many opportunities to learn about Ghanaian culture as possible. At the same time, I was able to develop strong bonds with the children and staff at the orphanage and school. This allowed me to recognize privileges I had that I never consciously thought of. It’s evident that I received a lot from this experience in terms of education and self-growth but when I look at the whole of my volunteer experience, I wonder if the children I worked with got the same level of benefit as I. Every participant, myself included, gave as much love and joy to the kids as we could but I often asked myself if making those deep connections was helping as much as it was hurting because while the connections were genuine, we were only able to strongly maintain them for the two weeks we were there.
This experience made me rethink my ideas of sustainable volunteering. In our last week we were able to start a tangible project that involved creating a multipurpose space for everyone at the children’s home. This experience gave me a very clear example on how volunteering can easily become just an ego boost. While we, as volunteers, may have felt really good about the connections we were making, we may not have left the children feeling the same way once we departed. This is why it is incredibly important to create a lasting impact when you volunteer. You don’t have to build a house or a school to create sustainable change. It could be educating others or raising funds but in all these aforementioned examples you are leaving something behind even when you are not physically there. This experience highlighted that need and redefined what “helpful” volunteering is.
- What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.
The interactions that had the greatest impact on me were the day to day ones with the children and staff at the children’s home and school. The kids especially would say how much they love us and will miss us and we got asked quite often if we will come back. Within two weeks they were very attached to us which made it even more pertinent to me that we had to leave behind something tangible. Otherwise, we would be coming into these kids’ lives, helping make them feel loved and appreciated, and then removing those feelings from them the minute we left. By starting a project in our time there, there is at least a constant reminder to the kids about our time together which helps soften our leaving and gives benefit to them when we’re not there.
Many of the other participants felt similar feelings and we often discussed these points as a group. We realized that while we were presently in the children’s home we may be having a positive impact but were unsure if that would continue once we left. If we had not had a physical project we left behind, we may have been hurting more than helping by leaving behind feelings of abandonment.
Regardless of whatever lingering feelings of guilt I may have, it’s an important reminder to myself that helping create a multi-purpose room is not an act for me to assuage my feelings but is to improve the quality of life for everyone at the children’s home and school. This experience was a learning point for me about volunteering and how to approach volunteering. While volunteering can make a volunteer feel good, that is not the main goal. The point is to assist where you can assist and to do so humbly and by letting the community have control of what is being done.
- Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans
The most direct and immediate way this change is valuable in my life comes from the fact that I plan to engage in other volunteer experiences and need to keep in mind how and if my volunteering impact will extend beyond my time there. In a more long term sense, I plan to go into a career in healthcare where I will be treating patients from all different backgrounds. When coming up with potential treatment plans I need to think about the sustainability of that plan for that particular patient. How feasible is it? Can they maintain this without my supervision? This is the side of medicine that is not taught in class or in a textbook and must come from empathy, critical thinking, and experience. Volunteering at a children’s home and working in medicine are not exactly the same thing but the thought process I’ve gained from volunteering will be applicable in my future career.