Through my ESHESA 2571 class, I had the opportunity to volunteer with ETSS, an organization that helps the refugee community in Columbus. At my specific location, I was able to tutor some adults from places like Syria, Somalia, and Kenya in English. At first I was nervous to volunteer because I thought that it would be hard to communicate and form bonds with the language barrier, but I soon learned that was not the case. I became friends with several of the clients there and had so much fun going every week. I’ve had experiences with the refugee community in my hometown, so it was cool to compare the two. I love learning about different cultures and languages, and ultimately I want to serve communities of people from various countries, both in and outside of the US, who don’t have adequate access to health care, so volunteering was a good starting experience affirming what I want to do in life. At the end of my time volunteering, they threw us a surprise party, which is pictured here! Everyone brought in amazing food from their home countries and brought us a cake, it was such a fun experience! I will always remember the time I spent volunteering there, and I hope I get to continue eventually!

For the past 4 years, my family and I have traveled to Ensenada, Mexico on a three-day trip to build a house for a needy Mexican family. Each time seems to be more memorable than the next. This specific picture is special to me because it was my second time here, and I had spent over $600 of my own money to come with my dad, so I felt a lot more independent than I did before. This picture was taken on the shopping trip, which occurs on the second day of building as we are finishing the house. The mom and the children go out with a translator and two to three volunteers and are able to spend $200 at the local Wal-Mart-type store. I was lucky to go with everyone because it meant I was able to interact on a more personal level for the kids whose house we were building, and to improve on my Spanish. Together, I was able to help them each pick out a treat, check out at the grocery store by myself, and communicate pretty accurately with the kids, which gave me a huge confidence boost in my Spanish-speaking abilities. Overall, that trip was one of the most inspirational and thought-provoking experiences I’ve had, and I can’t wait to return again this year!

I lived about 20 minutes away from Ferguson when that controversy arose a couple years ago. A few of my friends went to the various protests, and my high school got significantly stricter policies. As the Black Lives Matter movement came to light, it was easy for me to see the racial divide in everyday life. In response to this, there was a program started called the Summit, which brought together suburban schools, which had a majority white population, and city schools, who had a predominately African American population. We visited each other’s high schools and sat in for classes, and the differences were staggering. The quality of the facilities at the inner-city school were nowhere near as good as ours, they didn’t even have a track! We were able to discuss the differences in teaching as well. At my school everyone noticed that the teachers wanted to be friendly with the students and interacted lots, whereas the teachers at the city school gave them worksheets and spent the majority of the class yelling at them. One of the coolest things to do however was hear about the different opinions on several of the racial issues which were exposed throughout the country. I remember reading an article with everyone about the Oklahoma SAE chapter incident, where a video was surfaced of them singing an extremely offensive song. Instead of insisting that the boys be expelled and the chapter disbanded, it talked about how the more effective response would have been to use this as a teachable moment. Use the publicity from this to educate people about the history of African American struggles in that area and let them experience for themselves how offensive the song was. This was powerful for me because before that I had used my gut reaction of pure anger and disbelief to make the judgement that the boys should all be kicked out of the school, when really the more intelligent option would have been not to erase the memory of the incident, but publicize it in a new light, using it to add fire behind the BLM movement.