Mexico Spring Break

This also inspired me to become more heavily involved in a number of volunteer activities in and around the small town, which was now my home, such as school health camps, free medical treatment camps in remote villages, blood donation camps, and something very close to my heart. An organization called “A Clarion Call for Justice” created by a group of peers and myself wherein we raised funds and provided food, clothing and other basic amenities to orphanages, leprosy homes and blind schools in our city. I will never forget my experiences with the leprosy homes. These were homes provided to people ostracized from their villages as a result of disease, with little food and no money. Unable to interact with their family and loved ones as before, they were imprisoned in their isolation even when they were living among each other. Spending quality time with them allowed me to not only learn about their disease as a physician, but to also connect with them as a fellow human being and truly empathize with their suffering. Once I was able to establish trust among those living in the home, the amount of warmth and love they had despite of what they have had to experience in their lives was truly

While going to college I got to have the experience of a lifetime. Myself, and a group of 15 others went on a mission trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. We all got to see many cultural differences and help people in need. Helping people in need just

Volunteering at a community health center in my hometown, Santiago de la Frontera in El Salvador changed my perspective on choices. Growing up, I thought that people chose to not brush their teeth. At the age of seven, I immigrated to the USA and didn't have a chance to understand that concept in El Salvador. I went back last summer and assisted an orthodontist. This opened my eyes to realize that some families have to choose between a tooth paste and food. In life, we are not given the same advantages and therefor, we can not make the same choices.

After landing in Mexico and meeting up with the people I would be working with during a three-day mission trip, we were crammed into a bus and spent the next two hours getting to know each other. We were there to build homes for a multitude of families in the town of Xochimilco, Mexico. When we arrived late in the afternoon, we were led to an empty school where we would spend our nights. Sleeping on the floor next to school lockers with bugs buzzing in my ears in a country I did not know well was an interesting experience to say the least—but that was just the beginning. At dawn, the real work began and so did a change in my thinking that had a dramatic effect on my perspectives about life.

For example, when I was helping the Meals for the Poor mission I was shocked at the amount of people that appreciated our community service. We were helping so many people prosper and become better people. The feeling of kindness that we presented to this people, spread across the whole poor community of

At a young age I discovered a passion for helping others and I have continued to be passionate about serving my community since then. At the age of eight years old I began the first year of what would soon be my ten year membership of 4-H. Through that program and my church’s youth group I truly began to understand what selfless service was all about. I first began helping others by walking dogs at the local shelter and helping my 4-H club clean the sides of the highways. I later was able to experience several mission trips that opened my eyes to the larger aspect of service. My love for helping people continued to grow as I got older and I continued to find ways to make a difference. One of my favorite experiences was getting to help cook and serve a meal at a homeless

I saw how hard people worked in Mexico. I saw a lot of homeless people at the border asking for money and a lot selling stuff. I even saw kids younger than me out in the streets with their parents selling stuff and asking for money. It made my family and me sad when we saw them, they weren't everywhere but there were some in the more populated areas. This made me see how

Seeing a kid who will hold a gun before they hold their first book. Seeing a teenager my age injecting himself with heroin instead of injecting himself with knowledge. Seeing an elderly person who, when looking back at their life, will remember nothing but memories of misery. These things can't be read in a book or seen on a television. The truth is, you will never understand what people are truly going through until the day you look at them in the eyes. With members of my team, I worked tirelessly to build a home for a man named Serafin who no longer had a roof to live under in the slum. It was both the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, and the most rewarding. Serafin now had a home where he and his family could live in, and I had a new set of eyes to look at the world through. Later that day, I experienced what life was on the other side of the spectrum. Ironically enough, hours after being in Ciudad Bolivar, I found myself at a family wedding in one of Colombia's most luxurious country clubs. Most people were wearing articles of clothing and accessories that individually were worth more than everything a person in Ciudad Bolivar would own in their

Working for a multinational company provides wonderful opportunities to travel and work outside of the United States. How do you get started working in that direction when the usual hindrance, similar to a Catch-22, is that you need international experience in order to get a job overseas?

In March of 2014, my family and I went on a vacation to Naples, Florida. One year before this, a part of my extended family moved to Naples. They moved there because of my uncle, Cory Briscoe. Cory needed 2 to 3 years of additional schooling to get a degree in Nurse Anesthesia. Thinking of going to Florida had been fantastic thus for unbelievable. Our plan was to go the week of spring break to get away from the cold weather in Idaho. Quickly the first day of spring break came, and we were off to the airport.

I was born in a impoverished area in Guatemala city, where the scarcity of jobs and education was a normality, still the a acts of human service is what kept us alive as a small community. I may not know the exact date or the exact time, but I can clearly remember the moment when our next door neighbors surprised me and my Mother with groceries and money to pay the house rent . I was just seven years old when my single unemployed mother became

While working, my friend and I had some of the homeless folks giving us candy and cookies. Honestly, I did not want to have any but people felt offended when I refused to take their offers, so I ended up taking everything I was given. During meals people would make sure not to throw away food, so if they were something they did not like, they would walk around offering people their leftovers. It was touching how the homeless people always shared the little they had, and they referred to each other as brothers.

I wasn’t aware of the importance of doing good for others, until recently that I witnessed it with my own eyes. It all started when was at Chicago, a random man helped out a homeless man and bought him some food. I noticed as I was in line that the cashier then gave the helping man a free choice to pick something he wanted due to the action he did. After that day I began to make an attempt at helping out more and being a better person in general.

I have learned the importance of serving others by being a part of the youth group at my church. Every fourth Sunday of the month, my youth group takes snacks to Holston Valley Hospital. We go to most of the

My mother taught me from a young age that it is important to give to those in need. I have been blessed to live in a family were we were never in need of new cloths. So my mom felt it was important that we understood that not everyone was so blessed. So instead of throwing away our cloths we always gave them to the Salvation Army. I always felt good giving my cloths to those not as fortunate as myself and in the same time learned genuine concern for others. This was really brought home when I dated a woman name Lisa. He told me stories about growing up poor and how the other children made fun of her because of her hand me down cloths. I shared how I had always given my cloths to Salvation Army and this experience built a deep connectedness between us even after we parted