During winter break I went with a group of 8 people to volunteer with Constru Casa in Antigua Guatemala. We helped build a home for a young couple looking to start their family. While in Guatemela we were able to go on different excursions that allowed us to learn a lot about the culture.

I learned how important it is to make sure that everyone has a safe place they can call home. Homelessness is very prevalent in the United States, but it seems as if our government doesn’t make homelessness a priority. After this trip, I realized I wanted to help fight against homelessness especially here in Columbus. The winters aren’t as cold in Guatemala compared to the US. I can only imagine what it’s like to experience the winters here without a house.

While we were there we were able to interact with the family. The wife’s nieces lived in the house next to them and we were able to play with the kids and give them toys. Some of my peers had taken Spanish before the trip, so they were able to communicate with the kids and in turn build a deeper connection with them. This made me realize how important it is to learn other languages because it allows you to connect with people from diverse backgrounds. The couple was also very involved in the process, they would help us carry buckets of sand up a steep hill. Observing the dedication and hard work they put in truly earned my utmost respect for them.

Overall, this trip taught me how important it is to interact with people from different parts of the world. Being able to immerse myself in the culture and put myself in other people’s shoes will benefit me in my future career. I aspire to become an attorney and learning how to interact with different people is crucial. My goal is to learn more languages and visit more countries. I would also like to continue to be an advocate for diversity and inclusion.

My STEP Signature Project was a Buck-I-Serv trip to Solomon’s Temple Foundation’s transitional shelter for homeless women and their children through Restoration Atlanta (RATL) in Atlanta, Georgia. Throughout the trip, most of our activities centered around childcare and doing holiday activities with the children and mothers. We also spent time serving meals in the shelter and organizing donation rooms full of toys and clothes for people in the shelter.

Some key takeaways important after this trip are the importance of direct community work and not making assumptions about those who benefit from this work. When people do community work, sometimes they look at their work on a very small scale and get caught up in the larger more institutional changes that need to be made. While it’s good to try to fix these harmful institutional structures, it does not take away from all of the very real and timely benefits that direct community work can provide. It’s very easy to disconnect from others and make assumptions about their lives and situations. When doing this work, it’s also more beneficial for everyone if conversations are stimulated. Not always conversations about the work, but just about life. Hearing about people’s lives and what you can learn from them and their stories is very important to get the whole picture about everyone involved.

Conversations within the volunteer group, with the children, and with the mothers were crucial in leading to these transformations. Volunteers were assigned different days and times for serving meals, so sometimes we got different activities during this time and met different people that the rest of the group didn’t meet. There were also many points during the hours we were doing activities with the children that some kids got closer to some volunteers more than others. With this happening, volunteers got somewhat different experiences every day. In our down time and during meals, we were able to share all of our experiences and what we were learning with one another. We also had conversations about how our own personal lives could relate to others on the trip or in the shelter. There were some things that some participants on the trip never experienced directly so sharing these stories with each other really helped us gain more perspective on the trip.

Some of these conversations were observed or happened directly with the women or children in the shelter. The mothers would share their lives and lessons with us. As the kids felt more comfortable with the volunteers throughout the week, they would talk to us about their interests, lives, and schools. Sometimes we felt like we could relate to the mothers and children, and we learned from them. At one point we saw a mother who we had been getting closer with throughout the week tell her children that they got a house and would be moving soon. We were so happy to see her and the kids celebrating. We later talked about the importance of the volunteers realizing that we are a small piece in the families’ lives and that although our work is important, it’s all about the families and their work and progress.

My first service project on the trip was organizing a donation closet filled with presents for the children. When I was younger, there was a period of time I spent in foster care. I spent two holiday seasons going to family shelters, receiving donated gifts and spending time with other kids in similar situations to me. Seeing the gift and clothing donation closets and all the children in the shelter doing holiday activities reminded me of that time, and it was the biggest point in the trip where I could see how important the work we were doing was to the children and mothers.

After graduation, I would like to find work in the government with public policy or casework or with nonprofit organizations doing more direct community work. I am passionate about work surrounding poverty, housing, education, and gun violence and how these policy areas connected. Working with Solomon’s Temple and RATL made me realize that I would like to get more experience working with these organizations before I graduate. Thank you to RATL and Solomon’s Temple for this opportunity. I would love to go back every year that I can.

For my STEP signature project, I participated in the Buck-I-SERV trip to Siquetepepe, Honduras. This trip aimed to learn about the “Farm to Table” process of coffee beans that are used in a high-class blend served by Crimson Cup on campus. We visited a coffee farm in which we learned about the process of picking the cherries that contain the coffee beans. These cherries are then sent to a dry farm in which the coffee beans are extracted and laid out to dry. We also worked with a local organization called Serve Hope to build a simple wooden house for a family in need. 

Throughout this project, my view of the world greatly transformed. I had visited a few other countries before however, these countries are known for their tourism and hospitality. Siquetepepe is a smaller city in Honduras but is a good representation of how most of the citizens live. During this trip, I gained a better sense of understanding about the organization Serve Hope and their mission as well as the daily lives of the children of the farmers. 

The leaders of Serve Hope are a couple that have worked with the organization since it was founded. They have so much passion for their projects and they have successfully helped over 200 families in 2023 with their water filtration systems and their house builds. They often open their own home up to the volunteers with free meals and night stays. They started a small school for children in the area that has grown to a school for students from pre-K to 6th grade with plans for a new school to begin construction in 2024. This school has also provided classes for women to learn different types of crafts which are then sold globally on social media. Seeing their passion and hard work was truly motivational as many of the families that they help often come back to volunteer as soon as they are able. 

Working with the volunteers of Serve Hope also showed how important culture and religion are in Latin American countries. Serve Hope is a Catholic organization and the families that they help are often recommended by pastors or religious leaders all over Honduras. Before every build, a prayer is said to bless the safety of the volunteers and the work they are about to perform. Even though religion is part of their organization, they focus on helping anyone no matter their beliefs. Everyone is treated like family and they don’t try to push their religion off on those they help. Religion and culture are often a hard subject to discuss in the US as it is often used controversially in many political campaigns. Seeing this religious organization help others while not denying help to those who may not have the same beliefs or try to push their beliefs on others was refreshing.

At the coffee farm, we had the chance to talk with the family that has been running the farm for generations. Families from around the area come to the farm to pick the cherries during the day and receive pay based on the pounds of cherries picked. Children are often part of the process as they are taught at a young age how to harvest the cherries. Their school year revolves around the coffee season and their “summer” occurs during prime harvesting months. It was interesting to see how even at a young age, the children were already experienced pickers and were able to harvest a whole branch in a short amount of time. They were also excited to show us how to pick the cherries and were able to explain what time of cherries were ripe or ready to pick. This was very eye-opening as children are often not expected to work in the US until they are in high school or done with school. 

Overall, this experience was very valuable and related to my long-term career goal of improving the infrastructure of developing countries. Partaking in the house build was a great experience to learn about more simplistic house build. Many of the houses in Honduras were also built with a concrete frame which differs from a wood frame that is typically used in the US. This trip was also very valuable because I gained a better sense of appreciation for many things that we take for granted. 

My STEP project took place at The Ohio Wildlife Center focusing on animal care, enrichment and property improvement. I assisted with preparing injured wildlife for release through exercise, enrichment and appropriate diets as well as improving the facilities through different projects around the grounds. 

Through this work, I learned a great deal about myself and the field of wildlife conservation. I was able to learn or reaffirm certain personal strengths such as my enjoyment of laborious work to be maximally productive. It is in places like the OWC doing similar tasks that make so much hard work feel like it is not work at all, but rather a privilege and fulfilling activity. With that being said, I can also attest to my realization of how much work is put into nonprofit organizations. I was able to see how such a beneficial organization is only possible with the hard-work and good-will of so many dedicated volunteers. I have a much deeper appreciation and somber understanding of the sacrifice that goes into these great missions. This appreciation only strengthens my desire to be a part of that myself and join in the mission. I am motivated to continue on my pursuit of zoological medicine to continue to aid in these efforts. Another thing I learned was how organizations like the OWC are not only dependent on its volunteers but the surrounding community and neighbors to provide support where and when needed. The OWC works closely with many different organizations to provide the best care to its patients. This gave me a greater perspective on the holistic approach to be open-minded and to utilize every resource available for the best outcome.

Several different relationships, activities and events I partook in allowed me to realize these things. First, I had the privilege of working with several different volunteers throughout the different days as well as coordinate closely with my supervisor. I was simply amazed at how joyful these volunteers were to be there (in the cold and at times rain) just to help other people and other animals of the Earth. Every volunteer I interacted with also had a very unique background and with that had a different set of knowledge and skills to share and learn from. Some volunteers I met had recently joined the team like me and were even in similar life stages so we could relate to a lot. Others had been serving there for decades and were a blessing as they shared about their experiences throughout the years. My supervisor was incredible to learn from as I felt she had an endless pool of interesting facts about every animal we encountered. It was inspiring and reminded me of how magnificent each unique creature is. It is humbling and exciting at the same time to learn how much I don’t know. Even the doctor I regularly met and spoke with to receive my rabies vaccine was incredibly kind and personable as we exchanged about our lives and I got to hear his thoughts and advice on wildlife conservation.

I was able to engage in a multitude of different activities from basic animal care to enrichment and grounds improvement/maintenance. Having never worked with wild animals so closely before, I certainly learned a lot about their diets, behaviors and ecological roles. I worked specifically close with a red-tailed hawk who had been burned and was undergoing imping (replacement of feathers), a red fox with mange, songbirds and pigeons. I have also gotten to be around lavender skunks, raccoons and bald eagles there. There are also a number of residential wild animals that call the OWC their home to include the animals previously mentioned as well as owls, coyotes, opossums and others. With the hospitalized animals, I assisted in their daily routines to help in their recovery and preparation to be released back into the wild. I learned a great deal about their different diets as I prepped and recorded various meals. I saw first-hand how wildlife rehabilitation can work while exercising the red-tailed hawk in his enclosure with flight while following him with a tall pool noodle. I got to set up the enclosure for the red-fox while intentionally creating enrichment activities to keep his mind sharp and teach him foraging tactics while in captivity. 

The other major portion of this service-learning program involved projects around the grounds. This involved a great deal of hard work in the form of manual labor but was essential to providing the best, quality care possible for the animals. Since December is in a slower season for the OWC, there was lots of work to be done. This meant organization of the barn and supply closets, cleaning of these spaces around the property, wood-working, bug-sorting and other miscellaneous tasks. This work was formative as I don’t often push my physical limits in a work-setting but this was an opportunity I had to give it my all to get stuff done using my physical strength or my creative mind to problem solve where my body wasn’t enough. 

These transformational changes, realizations and lessons learned are all very relevant and valuable for my life now and my future career. I have gotten to practice interpersonal skills and apply them directly in animal-related field. As an aspiring pre-vet student, these connections and realizations will greatly benefit my understanding and perspective as I delve further into the field. I now have a better understanding of the abundant work that goes into a mission-oriented, non-business organization like the OWC which is the kind of work I want to be a part of for the rest of my life. I will take these lessons with me in ever area of my life, not just in terms of work or animals. I got to speak with many different people who I would have otherwise never met if not for our shared interest in wildlife conservation. I am very thankful for the impression they have had on me and the way they will continue to serve the people and environment around them. In many conversations I gained invaluable knowledge about the natural world as well as advice concerning my personal path in life. These people, the work they do and the animals cared for have all played a significant role in showing me how I can better care for the world around me, and everything in it.    

My STEP Experience was held at Grant Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio which started May 8th, 2023, and is a service learning/community service project. I have been able to work consistently with the hospital from May till now (after my project has ended). I intend to continue my work here at Grant Medical Center because I thoroughly enjoy the environment. This position holds a lot of responsibility and accountability. At the start of the project, I was rounding the entire 8th floor (Accountable Care Unit) with doctors at 10:00 am. For each patient, I took notes of the entire medical rundown of the morning. I ensured the patient had a good experience at the hospital because my role is both a part of volunteer services and patient experience services. I engaged with doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and patients. This was a transformational part of my project because it led me to want to educate my peers on patient care. The second portion of this STEP project consisted of me sharing my knowledge of patient care at the medical center with other volunteers. To accomplish this, I created a volunteer handbook of tips and information on what to do when volunteering with patients. The goal of the handbook is to teach other volunteers how to increase their communication skills with patients, bedside manner, and overall volunteer service skills. This project ended in December of 2023. I communicated with patients and staff during my patient floor hours to gain information on how things in the hospital could be improved. I learned a lot about patient care during this project, and I hope my project can make an impact on the environment in the hospital. My efforts to create a better space for patients will be expressed through my personal volunteer hours and will also be expressed through other volunteers I have taught.